2023 Barns of Iowa

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Family moved Pilot Mound-area barn

By DARCY

DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

PILOT MOUND — While most barns are made to last where they’re built, a few relocate. One of these “mega moves” occurred in Boone County in the late fall of 1990 when Stan Lingren and his wife, Cheryl Tevis, added a second barn to their farm in Pilot Mound Township.

“We moved one of the barns to our place, and my dad moved the other barn to his farm about 3 miles south of us,” said Lingren, whose family had farmed in Boone County for generations.

Both barns came from a farm two miles away to the west (as the crow flies) of Lingren’s property. The barns had stood for decades

Boone

on one of the farms owned by Reuben Lundberg, who owned the International farm machinery dealership in Dayton for years.

“After Reuben died, his brother told my dad he was going to bulldoze those two barns,” Lingren said. “That’s when Dad and I paid $1,750 each to buy a barn.”

The Lingrens weren’t nervous about relocating the barns.

“Moving buildings is genetic in my family,” joked Lingren, who has lived northwest of Pilot

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby STAN LINGREN AND HIS WIFE, CHERYL TEVIS, stand outside the barn on their Boone County farm.

See BOONE, Page 7

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The perfect host

By DARCY

DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Anyone who has tackled a remodeling project knows how one thing leads to the next.

This was true when Kris and Kelly Kohl’s son Kurt got married in October 2016.

“It was the kids’ idea to have their wedding reception in the barn,” said Kris Kohl, whose family lives on an acreage northeast of Storm Lake in Grant Township. “The original plan was just to clean up the barn.”

This meant several weeks of power washing (and using scaffolding to access the hardto-reach places) to remove bird nests and bird droppings. This wasn’t the first time the family had invested time and resources into their barn.

“When we moved to this place around 1990, there were holes in the barn roof, so we

Buena Vista

put a steel roof on it,” said Kohl, a South Dakota native and agricultural engineer who has worked with Iowa State University Extension since 1989.

It’s hard to determine the exact age of the barn, added Kohl, who noted that the farmhouse was built in 1918. “The west side of the barn had stalls for four teams of horses, and it had about 15 stanchions on the east for milk cows.”

A quick tour inside the 56foot by 32-foot barn reveals some old-growth wood with mortise-and-tenon joints. “It looks like the barn builders reused some materials from an older barn,” said Kohl,

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

WHEN KRIS AND KELLY KOHL'S SON and daughter-in-law decided to get married, their desire to have a wedding reception in the family barn jumpstarted many improvements.

The spacious Kohl family barn served as a venue for 3 wedding receptions

Saving barns

Iowa Barn Foundation strives to preserve barns statewide

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the Iowa Barn Foundation hopes to spark the same passion in others as its members hold for saving barns that dot the state's horizon.

The foundation is able to help barn owners preserve these important structures with its grant program. Barns that are taken back to their original appearance with expenses paid for by the owners can go on to earn an award of distinction.

These efforts couldn't happen without the financial support of donors. In the past 25 years, the foundation has raised more than $2 million and restored more than 270 barns. More than 30 have received the Award of Distinction.

“As we reflect and celebrate 25 years since the founding of the Iowa Barn Foundation, we might ask ourselves why is our mission important? Do barns really matter to anyone? My answer would be a resounding yes to both. As an active farmer we have many modern functional agricultural structures to house our livestock and machinery but I’d hardly call these buildings beautiful. Our 105-year-old barn is a work of art,” said Jack Smith, Iowa Barn Foundation president. “It is our family heirloom and I would be devastated by its loss. It connects me to family members gone before I was born. When visitors come to Iowa, they have expectations of the landscape and that includes historically significant barns.

“No organization in the country has done more to preserve this great symbol of Iowa’s rural heritage.”

The foundation is able to educate the public about the significance and importance of Iowa’s barns through the Iowa Barn Foundation Magazine and barn tours, which raise money to provide barn rehabilitation or restoration matching grants to help property owners restore their barns.

At the peak of small-farm agriculture in Iowa, it is estimated there were more than 200,000 barns

iowa Barn Foundation

celeBrates 25 years

“We have been losing approximately 1,000 barns a year over the past 20 years and we believe the derecho that hit Iowa in August of 2020 took a much heavier toll on barn numbers,” Austin said. “Fortunately, many barns are being preserved by farm families and barn enthusiasts who understand the historic significance of these structures.”

The grants extended to barn owners who abide by certain criteria help preserve these agricultural gems. For example, the 1919 Dobbin Round Barn in Marshall County was preserved by its owners, Christy Dobbin Chambers and her husband Jonathan Chambers.

The Iowa Barn Foundation turned 25 this year! It’s an exciting time for the Iowa Barn Foundation and a lot has been accomplished in those years.

In the past 25 years, the Iowa Barn Foundation has raised over $2 million and has restored more than 270 barns for future enjoyment. In addition, over 30 barns in Iowa have received the Award of Distinction for the work that owners have done on restoring their barns on their own. The Iowa Barn Foundation has been the inspiration to many barn owners to restore their barns for generations to come.

across the state. After World War II, mechanization, fertilizer and hybrid seed corn all came onto the scene, transforming Iowa agriculture. With modern machinery, farmers could take on more acres leading to a dramatic shift in farm size and count.

In 1950, Iowa had 206,000 farms with an average size of 169 acres. In 2021, Iowa had 84,900 farms with an average size of 359 acres.

Transportation improvements meant that animals could be shipped longer distances to market, leading to specialization and larger animal farms. Barns that were built to raise a variety of a small number of horses, beef cows, dairy cows, sheep and hogs were no longer practical.

Multi-purpose wood barns gave way to more practical metal-sided structures to house animal operations as well as large machinery,” explained David Austin, foundation board member and editor of the foundation’s magazine.

While there is no official count of Iowa's remaining barns, the Iowa Barn Foundation estimates that approximately 40,000 remain across the state.

“Our legacy to the Dobbin family is to save the barn for future generations to enjoy. Our legacy to Iowa history is to preserve the entire farmstead as a tribute to the importance of early 1900 family farms to our state,” Dobbin Chambers said.

The foundation's 2022 barn tour featured 66 barns located across the state. The 2023 spring tour has been scheduled for June 24-25 in Van Buren County, while the 2023 fall tour will feature more than 60 barns across the state.

“Our tours are an opportunity to immerse yourself in Iowa agriculture history. Barns are available to tour inside and out, and owners are present to share the history of their barns and answer questions. The tours are a great opportunity for multi-generation family adventures,” Austin said. “My two favorite conversations to observe during barn tours are when barn owners are sharing memories from years gone by showing how farming operations were housed in their barns, and when parents and grandparents relive their childhood showing the younger generations the work they did inside of barns in their youth,”

For more information about the foundation, its grant program or the award program, visit https:// iowabarnfoundation.org.

The Iowa Barn Foundation, its Board of Directors and County Representatives work to preserve Iowa’s agricultural history and endangered barns by educating people in Iowa and beyond about our rural heritage and the importance of barn preservation! This is being accomplished through the bi-annual Iowa Barn Foundation Magazine, the Iowa Barn Foundation website, the annual All-State Barn Tour and through picnics, open meetings and through worldwide publicity in newspapers, magazines and television. We provide matching grants to property owners to help restore qualified barns.

Barns, America's symbols of honesty, integrity, and the American dream, are disappearing from Iowa's countryside at a rapid rate. With mechanized agriculture of today, barns are no longer the center of the farm. But, they remain poignant reminders of our agricultural heritage.

“As we reflect and celebrate 25 years since the founding of the Iowa Barn Foundation, we might ask ourselves why is our mission important? Do barns really matter to anyone? My answer would be a resounding yes to both. As an active farmer, we have many modern functional agricultural structures to house our livestock and machinery but I’d hardly call these buildings beautiful. Our 105-year-old barn is a work of art. It is our family heirloom and I would be devastated by its loss. It connects me to family members gone before I was born. When visitors come to Iowa, they have expectations of the landscape and that includes historically significant barns. No organization in the country has done more to preserve this great symbol of Iowa’s rural heritage. Would you join us by becoming a member of the Iowa Barn Foundation?

Better yet would you like to get involved in our mission?

We would appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Jack Smith, Iowa Barn Foundation president

"Our tours are an opportunity to immerse yourself in Iowa agriculture history ... The tours are a great opportunity for multi-generation family adventures."

DAVID AUSTIN Foundation board member

Boone

Continued from Page 2

Mound since 1978.

“My grandpa moved a corn crib north of Boone in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and my dad moved some small hog houses when he was farming.”

Not only did these ambitious moves help save on the cost of a new building, but they helped preserve pieces of Boone County ag history. Lingren paid Bissel Construction of Waukee $5,000 to move his 40-foot by 32-foot barn.

“The previous owners fed cattle in my barn,” Lingren noted. “Dad’s barn had five box stalls for horses and an area for milk cows.”

Lingren carved an area out of the field west of his family’s home for this “new” old barn, northwest of an existing barn on the farm.

“That one was a round-roofed barn that was probably built in the 1940s or 1950s, judging by the laminated rafters,” Lingren said.

Sadly, an intense fire destroyed that barn (and the hogs inside) in January 1993.

The family rebuilt a post-frame barn from Menards. They also continued to use the barn they’d moved in 1990. Lingren had poured a concrete foundation and floor for that barn and added large, sliding doors on each end so he could drive a skid loader inside.

He also added new water lines, electrical wiring and oak planks from a sawmill at Ogden.

These planks made sturdy dividers for the livestock pens where Lingren raised hogs.

After a destructive hailstorm hit the area around 1998, Lingren salvaged portions of the white steel roof from the community center in Pilot Mound to repair his barn roof.

Today, Lingren calves his firstcalf heifers in the barn and uses the barn’s haymow to store small, square bales of hay that he sells to horse owners.

“While we live in a throwaway society, I’m glad we saved this barn,” Lingren said. “It’s still useful.”

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Continued from Page 4

who noted a family named Morris constructed the barn. “The clear-span space in the haymow is a unique feature.”

As the Kohls cleaned up the barn, they noticed a weak spot on the southwest corner of the foundation, which they fixed with concrete and steel.

Additional improvements included windows on the north and south, electrical wiring to string lights across the rafters in the haymow, the addition of a wide staircase inside the south side of the barn and a deck outside the north end of the haymow.

KRIS KOHL, a South Dakota native and agricultural engineer who has worked with Iowa State University Extension since 1989, stands inside the family barn recently.

“I took off the month of September 2016 to work on the barn,” said Kohl, who had extra help from two of his sons, who were 12 and 13 at the time, as well as a neighbor boy.

Two weeks after Kurt Kohl and his wife, Carrie, hosted

their 2016 wedding reception in the barn, Kurt’s sister Pearl also hosted her wedding

reception there. In the summer of 2018, another one of the Kohl’s 10 children, Fern,

hosted her wedding reception in the barn, which now boasted a deck on the south side of the haymow.

“The barn can hold about 180 guests,” Kohl said. “We serve the food on the main floor, and the dance floor is in the haymow.”

Today, the barn includes a mix of modern improvements (including a bathroom in the haymow, a furnace, insulation and red steel siding), as well as the original hay fork, hay track and rope, along with a ceilingmounted manure carrier track on the main floor.

This track is visible above the play area for the grandkids. Upstairs, a Christmas tree stands tall in the haymow.

“We look forward to having our family Christmas party in the barn this year,” Kohl said.

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

A CHRISTMAS TREE stands tall in the haymow where the family looks forward to holding their holiday gathering this year.

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby STAN LINGREN AND HIS WIFE, CHERYL TEVIS, hold a display of photos detailing how their barn was moved from its previous location on a two-mile journey to their farm place near Pilot Mound. The barn was moved in the fall of 1990.

Barn helps Carlson Cattle business thrive

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

It’s rare that an old barn is more relevant today than it was in years past, but that’s the case at the Carlson family’s farm between Lake City and Yetter.

“This isn’t a fancy barn, but it plays an important role in Carlson Cattle,” said Matt Carlson, who lives on the farm with his wife, Jaci.

Carlson’s son, Colin, created Carlson Cattle, a show cattle business focused on Angus show heifers and purebred Simmental heifers. It builds on the Carlson family’s strong agricultural heritage in Elm Grove Township in Calhoun County.

“The Carlsons homesteaded just north of here,” said Carlson, an ag education teacher and FFA advisor at South Central Calhoun High School in Lake City. “The big Carlson farm was located across the section from our place and included two barns.”

No one is sure about the exact age of Matt and Jaci’s barn. “The house was built in 1927, so we figure the barn was built around that time or earlier,” said Carlson, who has been a high school ag instructor for 39 years.

Carlson’s uncle and aunt, Richard and Doris Carlson, lived at the farm until about 1970, followed by some tenants before Carlson’s parents, Aaron and Barb, moved there in 1980.

“There was never much livestock on this farm,” said Matt, whose father removed the hayloft on the south side and

calhoun

added a large door on the west so he could store vehicles and machinery in the barn.

Livestock became part of the farm again after Colin joined the Jackson Pioneers 4-H Club and wanted to try a cattle project. After weeds were removed and fences were installed, the barn provided a convenient place to raise the calves that Colin and his younger sister, Kelsi, enjoyed showing at the Calhoun County Expo.

The barn also received a facelift around this time. Jaci and her friend Stacie Schultz painted the silver tin exterior siding red in June 2010. Then the Carlsons added a colorful, painted barn quilt on the haymow door the next year.

“The blue and yellow in the design reflect our Swedish heritage, the green represents agriculture, and the red block with the white star in the middle stands for American pride,” said Jaci Carlson, whose family members signed the back of the barn quilt before installing it on the west side of the barn on July 28, 2011.

The barn remains a hub of the farm, said Colin, 25, who sells livestock feed for Webb’s Feed in Rockwell City, sells Golden Harvest seed and continues to grow the Carlson Cattle business. “We’ll calve about 20 animals this spring.”

The Carlsons use embryo

transfer technology, and calves are born in January and February.

“We’ve had calves born during blizzards when the barn is barely visible from the house,” Colin Carlson said. “Then there are calm, still nights when the snow

crunches under your feet when you go out to check the calves. There’s nothing like it.”

There’s also nothing like the three mysterious old chairs positioned next to each other in the north hayloft, where they

LEFT: Matt and Jaci Carlson stand outside the family barn with their son, Colin.

ABOVE: The blue and yellow in the design of this barn quilt reflects the Carlson family’s Swedish heritage, while the green represents agriculture, and the red block with the white star symbolizes American pride, according to Jaci Carlson, whose family members signed the back of the barn quilt before installing it on the west side of the barn in July 2011.

have stood for decades. “It’s almost like previous generations of the family are here, watching over everything,” Colin Carlson said. “There are so many stories this barn could tell.”

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Carroll County farm boasts two barns

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

TEMPLETON — While barns were once an essential component of every Iowa farm, many farms today no longer have a barn, especially as time took a toll on these old buildings, technology evolved and livestock production methods changed.

carroll

Even fewer farms still have two barns, like Pat Weitl’s Carroll County farm east of Templeton.

It’s not just the number of barns at this farm on the east side of U.S. Highway 71 that are noteworthy, however. The eyecatching white lettering on the west barn and nearby sheds, which are all painted red, spells out “Pat and C.J. Weitl.”

“That was my husband’s idea,” said Weitl, who moved to the farm in 1963 after marrying her husband, Charles, who grew up on this farm.

This farm also includes a classic farmhouse that has graced this property between Carroll and Templeton for more than 100 years. “Generations of the Weitl family have lived here,” Weitl said.

The farm came into the Weitl family by the early 1890s, after Karl Weitl and his wife, Kate, bought the land. They had lived in the Arcadia area before moving to Eden Township, Weitl noted.

The two German immigrants raised their children, along with livestock and crops, on this Carroll County farm, which received a Century Farm award in 1992.

While the two barns on the farmstead look nearly identical at first glance, a closer inspection reveals that the structures feature two different designs. The barn on

the southeast side of the farmstead has a gable roof. To the west, the barn with the words “C.J. Weitl” on the south side is a monitor-style barn. This type of barn has a large center aisle with shed wings on both sides. The large center section is taller than the attached wings.

Think of a monitor barn design as three separate boxes. The boxes on each side of the center aisle work well for housing livestock, including horses and dairy cows. A loft was often added to the second story above the aisle in monitor-style barns to store grain and hay, and openings in the gable ends could move air through the loft space.

The Weitl barns were a hub of activity for many years, especially when Charles Weitl’s parents, Charles and Anna, were raising their seven children (Arlene, Richard, Nola, Marlo, Myra, Charles and Norbert) on the farm. Black-and-white photographs in the Weitl family’s collection show the Welt monitor-style barn in the winter decades ago as a cab-less tractor with a loader bucket plowed snow from the nearby driveway.

The barns remained an important part of

the farm when Charles and Pat raised their four daughters (Judy, Jennifer, Jean and Jill) on the farm. Today, Weitl can sit at her

ABOVE: Pat Weitl's farm in Carroll County is one of the few that still have two barns. The eye-catching white lettering on the west barn and nearby sheds, which are all painted red, spells out “Pat and C.J. Weitl.”

-Submitted photo

LEFT: Black-and-white photographs in the Weitl family’s collection show a crew working on one of the buildings on the farm in years past.

kitchen table, relax with her pet cats and enjoy the view from the picture window, which looks out across the barns and other outbuildings.

She’s glad she decided to stay on the farm after Charles died in 2005, just months after retiring from farming in 2004.

“It was always important to my husband to keep this place up, and I want to keep the farm and the barns looking nice, too.”

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

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Coming home to farm by way of Alabama

By CLAYTON RYE

CLEAR LAKE — Mike Schwichtenberg told of the path that led his father John to the farm he bought in 1957 when Mike was age 3, where the family barn is located.

John Schwichtenberg grew up in the Klemme-Goodell area. In the military, he was stationed at Grand Bay, Alabama. After being discharged, he returned to the farm he called home, but realized there wasn’t a place for him.

He decided to return to Alabama to work as a farm manager. He also went back to see more of a woman he met named Francis.

John and Francis were married in 1948 and decided to move to Iowa, purchasing the farm south of Clear Lake where they raised their family.

Mike Schwichtenberg believes the barn was built around the 1920s. His dad used the barn for milking cattle, selling the milk to the creamery in Clear Lake.

“He had dairy cattle as long as I can remember,” he said.

The Schwichtenbergs milked twice a day, filling the 15 stanchions twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

Dairying ended in 1972.

After the dairying ended, the beef cattle operation expanded to 40 head of cow-calf production. Besides the beef cattle, the barn

cerro Gordo

MIKE SCHWICHTENBERG first moved to what is now his family's farm at the age of 3. As an adult, he and his family returned there in the 1990s. Then the barn became the place to house his children's 4-H sheep projects.

was the place where the hogs farrowed four or five years.

Another four or five years the barn was used for feeder pigs, as the Schwichtenbergs were part of a feeder pig co-op. They received 40-pound feeder pigs and fed them to 60 pounds in the barn until 1978.

Through the 1980s, they winter farrowed in the barn.

The beef cattle part of the farm ended in the 1980s and

continued with pasture farrowing of 200 sows until 1998. In 1976, two confinement buildings were built and used until around 2008 or 2009, according to Mike Schwichtenberg.

The confinement buildings were recently torn down.

He remembers the hay loft storing half straw for bedding and half hay.

“The hay loft was always

filled,” he said.

The Mike Schwichtenberg family moved onto the home farm in the 1990s.

The barn became where the three kids kept their 4-H projects.

After years of hogs and cattle, the barn was used to keep their 4-H sheep projects, including lambing in the barn from 1998 to 2012.

ABOVE: The Schwichtenberg barn was likely built in the 1920s. In the early years, it was used for milking dairy cattle and later housed beef cattle and hogs.

-Farm News photos by Clayton Rye

Bringing ‘a piece of the past to the future’

By DOUG CLOUGH

CHEROKEE — As far as grain bins go, the granary on Duane Mummert’s property was big. It had 12 bins, more than most.

cherokee

“When I bought the building in 1996, there were still beans, oats, and corn in the bins,” said Mummert. “When I pressure washed the concrete, I evicted some raccoons, possums, and rats.”

Over the course of the next few years, he renovated the grain bin into a place his hunting buddies could use to hang out. It was then, Mummert said, that “things began to get out of hand.”

“Some have called it a bed and breakfast,” said Mummert, “but I don’t cook, so it became a lodge — The Grainery Lodge.”

The old granary, which opened in 2007, is a five-level getaway for weddings, reunions, work groups, and — yes — even hunters. There are four bedrooms and enough space to sleep 18 people.

“A lot of people in general don’t know much about their family history,” said Mummert, who is the Cherokee Parks director. “There are a lot of different artifacts from folk’s great-grandparent days.”

The kitchen has a corrugated steel barrel ceiling, a light

comprised of a vintage rat trap and mason jar bulb. In the living room, grain chutes serve as lighting decor. A side room has a grain-burning stove: “A bushel of corn will heat the whole lodge.”

Up the stairs to the second floor, seed sacks hang on Victorian clothes hangers and chicken waterers top the railing corners, balanced out by pulleys

The Cherokee Banquet Barn was built to handle indoor receptions and weddings and can hold more than 300 guests. Nearby is The Grainery Lodge, a five-level getaway, with four bedrooms and enough space to sleep 18 people.

and ropes at the top of the stairs. One of the bedroom beds has a potato seeder for a headboard.

A modern bathroom has the walls of the shower covered with tin, and an antique basin repurposed from a regional farmhouse, complete with porcelain spigot.

Levels three and four are for those who appreciate a bit of entertainment with their look

at days gone by. A pool table is present with sticks stored in a “Union Tools Farm and Garden Tool Stand.” Above the pool table is a century-old hay sling given to him by lifelong friend Brad Phipps who helped with much of the restoration.

The fourth floor has a mini theater for showing movies or giving a presentation to a group of coworkers. At the very top,

there’s a loft for the kids to sleep in; it has two beds and room for sleeping bags. From the theater level window, one can see the property’s 2.5 miles of walking trails as well as ponds.

But that’s not where this story ends. Since October of 2019, Mummert has been in expansion mode, adding the Banquet Barn to his service and event offering.

“Since opening the Grainery Lodge, we’ve taken on so many weddings and events — most have had to be outside,” said Mummert, “that we’ve built a barn to accommodate the demand. People still use the lodge for accommodations, but now they use the Banquet Barn for indoor receptions and weddings as it can hold over 300 guests.”

The look of the banquet hall clearly says barn, but the construction is entirely new. There is no antique milking stanchion, hay in the loft, or horse stall.

There is, like the lodge, a strong feeling of bringing a piece of the past to the future. The windmill turbine that adorns one of the walls is from neighboring Nebraska and its tail from an Ida County, Iowa, farmstead. There are antique farm signs in the hayloft.

“We’ve had people here from all the states and four countries,” said Mummert. “We’re always looking toward the future with one eye on the past.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

-Submitted photo

Jim’s History Barn provides education for all

By DOUG CLOUGH PETERSON

— One thing is for certain; Jim Hass was a lifelong historian and collector. Like most of us, Hass, who passed in 2017, wanted to leave something behind of significance. His wife Sue and three boys are a major part of his legacy.

clay

But, unlike most of us, he also left behind a barn packed with everything he read about and accumulated during his 75-year lifetime.

Jim’s History Barn is a representation of not only Jim’s knack for collecting, but of Americana itself.

“Back in the ’90s, Jim’s collection had taken over the house,” said Sue Hass. “We decided we either should get rid of it or get it under one roof. It was my idea to purchase this lot, and it was Jim’s idea to find a barn. It was our collective effort.”

The lot was purchased in 1994 and the barn, located just south of Spencer, was sourced soon after.

“The hayloft was separated from the clay tile walls and brought to town,” she said. “We put a new block foundation down; next, we hired a mover from Hull to get the barn to town.”

And, indeed, the barn is smack dab in the middle of Peterson, population 324, a beautiful red barn impossible to miss. The barn features knee braces on the front, a cosmetic touch usually reserved for home construction. Johanna and Peter Larsen built the barn in 1928.

Sue Hass grew up in the Cherokee area with her six brothers and one sister. A farm girl, she was no stranger to barns, having had chicken chores, which included gathering eggs and cleaning the hen house.

“I never saw myself bringing a barn into a

ARTS ON GRAND

GALLERY, GIFT SHOP, CLASSES, MORE

town, but here we are,” said Hass.

When entering the history barn, it’s hard to know where to begin, so Hass invites people to visit the barn by appointment when she can give them a good overview.

“Jim’s biggest passion was Indian history. For him, it was never hard to find Indian relics, especially arrowheads, while going through plowed fields,” said Hass. “Jim was a well-known insurance salesman in the area, so when the barn opened in 1996, friends and clients were always saying, ‘Hey, I think I’ve got something you might be interested in.’ Jim never turned anything down. On vacations, we stopped at flea markets and estate sales. His greatest joy was to go through a landfill!”

ABOVE: Jim’s History Barn is a representation of not only Jim’s knack for collecting, but of Americana itself. The barn was originally built in 1928.

LEFT: Visitors can see hundreds of arrowheads, full arrows, drums, and other Native American garb at Jim’s History Barn in Peterson.

Jim’s History Barn is open by appointment only by calling Sue Hass at 712-295-6552.

Jim’s collection kept growing. When you first come into the barn, you’ll note that there is an entire area dedicated to early western memorabilia. There are civil war and other military artifacts that include guns, outfits, canteens, and helmets; there are many black powder rifles with other early flint locks going back to the revolutionary war. There is even a whaling ship replica given to the couple that took 10 years to complete. Hass has four big binders where Jim detailed his inventory.

“It’s been my retirement project to continue sorting out what Jim started,” said Hass.

“When we prepared the barn to be open, the kids were in school,” she said. “Jim brought in wood from other barns to use for stairs and flooring, and he had our three boys scrub the wood and remove the nails. Of course, now our boys are grown. One is talking about returning home after retirement to help manage the barn’s contents. It will be nice to have the help.”

Hass said that there has been a lot of traffic from the public as well as school classes over the years. “It’s a great place to get to see history,” she said. “Jim enjoyed sharing it with others, and I do too.”

-Farm News photos by Doug Clough

Hwy . 71 N, P . O. Box 826

IA • 712-262-4528 Bar n: 712-262-4528 • Luke: 712-269-0685

Denison-area barn showcases quilts and more

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

DENISON — Is it a quilting retreat? A wedding venue? A favorite family gathering place?

If it’s the Fineran barn north of Denison, it’s all the above — and more. This Gothic-arch barn started off as a typical farm building, though, long before it underwent an “extreme makeover” in recent years.

“Dad and I raised cattle in here,” said Kevin Fineran, referring to the spacious area where his wife, Diane, creates and displays her colorful quilts.

With its bright lighting, car siding and rustic decorations, it’s almost hard to believe this quilting room ever housed livestock. A photo of Diane standing on the dirt floor in those pre-renovation days, however, shows just how far the barn has evolved.

“I took Kevin to Molly’s (an

crawFord

old barn-turned-retail-store near Audubon) to help him see the potential,” Diane Fineran said. “Once we started working on our barn, we figured things out as we went.”

Kevin was intrigued by the possibilities. He had appreciated the barn since his youth, when he was growing up on the farm just over the hill to the northeast. “When I was working on our farm, I’d look down here at this big barn and thought it was so cool. I never dreamed I’d own this place someday.”

For decades, the barn had belonged to the Spahn family. Some of the neighbors recalled attending dances in the Spahn barn, which was likely built in the 1930s.

“This barn has a really

solid foundation made of thick concrete,” said Kevin, who noted that an earlier barn on this farm was destroyed by lightning.

The barn was in pretty good shape when Kevin and Diane moved to the farm around 197980. When it was time to fix the roof, the Finerans hired a roofing company from Dow City to cover the original, wooden shingles with sheets of steel.

Since then, a variety of interior and exterior renovations have enhanced the barn. Some are new additions, including a bathroom on the main floor, as well as a full kitchen with a dining area and living room. Spacious decks on the east and west offer remarkable views of the countryside. The west side of the barn’s exterior also offers a prime spot to display a colorful

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

THE FINERAN BARN north of Denison has been transformed from a livestock building into a place to display quilts and hold family gatherings. See CRAWFORD, Page 70

7th generation strives to preserve barn

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

In 1913, a stoic working barn was built in Dallas County, constructed with wooden pegs instead of nails and rocks for the foundation. Thanks to its custom construction and hardy materials, the barn still stands today.

Years ago the barn was used to house livestock and hay. There were stanchions and a milking machine on the north side and stalls for the horses that pulled the farm equipment before tractors were brought into the operation.

“Only two families have lived there and used the buildings. The day my husband was born, April 1937, was the day my fatherin-law got his first tractor,”

Carol Peters said. “Eventually he pulled the horse stalls out of the barn, but those were what supported the haymow, so my father-in-law went somewhere

dallas

south of here and brought back a big, long board that runs the full length of the haymow, a big, long support beam.”

Then he converted that space over to house hogs. After Peters’ husband Lowell retired from farming, the torch was passed off to other family members, including their son, Greg. Together this seventh generation of caregivers all tend to the operation and keep it in the family.

The barn’s unique rock foundation can be seen from the inside as well as the outside.

The Peters family breathed new life into the barn, thanks to a grant from the Iowa Barn Foundation. The barn was jacked up on the north side where some of the rocks’ support had given way and a traditional foundation

was erected there.

“The crews who built the barn used mortise and tenon joints to connect the wood as well as pegs. I read recently that nails weren’t readily available back when the barn was built, and because nails are metal and the support beams are wood, with heat and cold they don’t contract and expand at the same time,” Peters said. “The advantage of using mortise and tenon and pegs is that they meld together better and contract at the same time.”

The barn has appeared on the Iowa Barn Foundation’s tour for a couple of years now.

It was important to Peters’ father-in-law and mother-in-law that they keep the farm in the family.

“Both their children were born and raised there and they requested that we not sell the farm,” Peters said. “So far we’ve honored that request.”

-Submitted photo

THIS DALLAS COUNTY BARN owned by the Peters family was built in 1913. At one time it sheltered horses and cows, but later was converted to accommodate hogs.

Sharing farm life with the community

By DOUG CLOUGH

SPIRIT LAKE

— Paula Randen spent summers on her grandparents’ dairy farm helping to care for calves, tending to chickens, and gathering cows for milking. “They always seemed to be in the farthest field when it was time to bring the herd in,” said Randen. “I remember those times as a lot of hard work; I treasure those times as some of the best.”

Randen manages the Okoboji Barn, a bar and grill event center, located at 2325 41st St. close to U.S. Highway 71. In fact, you can see the big white barn illuminated at night as you travel the highway. She has been working at the venue since 2016 but took over managing duties in July 2020.

“The pandemic was tough on the previous management, but I didn’t want to see it close, so I decided to give it a go,” said Randen.

Originally the barn, built in 1919, was home to a successful dairy operation. Brothers Albert and

dickinson

August Resch had the 42-by-90by-42-foot structure contracted by Henry Bocin. Bocin was known to construct barns using a hand saw and drill as well as a square, resulting in barns — like this one — that stand the test of time and a lot of hay.

The barn’s haymow was built to store 100 tons of loose hay. The 45-degree angle of the 6-by8-foot Douglas fir support beams, compressing against each other to support the trusses, was critical to support this weight. The structure cost $3,000.

The original color of the barn was brown, a paint recipe within the Resch family that no longer exists. Milking stanchions and feed bunks lined one end of the barn, and stalls for four two-horse teams lined the other end. A large alleyway took up the middle of the barn, and an open

pen was at the back. In 2005, a Des Moines developer took ownership of the barn to make it an event center; the developer painted the barn white, ran new power and water, and replaced the shingled roof with sheet steel. One of the most notable changes came from the illuminating lights that make the barn stand out to those who travel U.S. Highway 71.

“We still had cows in the pasture in 2016,” said Randen, “but they are gone now. It was a real reminder of my grandparents’ operation. It’s those memories that make this barn part of my heart. I grew up in this environment. It brings tears to my eyes at times.”

The event center boasts of a chandelier in the loft, and Randen has hosted 38 weddings since July 2020. Christmas parties and other events are also held at the site.

“We aim for a cozy, at-home country feel,” she said. “I’m happy to share my feelings for this barn with the Okoboji area.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

THE OKOBOJI BARN, which once housed cows and horses, is now a bar and grill event center.

Still lookin’ good in ‘Harvey-ville’

By DOUG CLOUGH ESTHERVILLE — Standing

amid Dan and Michelle Harvey’s farm there is a notable function and aesthetic marker: the Harveys — starting with their barn just under a century ago — love their brick. And it’s not just any brick and mortar; it’s a dark-bodied, fully rich, aesthetically pleasing brick with bold curves highlighting entry ways and windows.

Harvey still has the blueprints for the barn, safely tucked away in the drum of a decades-old washing machine that sets among rusted milking stanchions. The Kalo Brick and Tile Company of Fort Dodge supplied the brick and construction.

“The barn was built in 1925,” said Harvey. “When I first looked at how good of shape the concrete was on the north end, I thought it must have been broken up and repoured. Then we found out that my great-grandfather William only had milk cows on that end of the barn until 1930. There

emmet

wasn’t any livestock on that end of the building since.”

Indeed, the feed bunks and milking stanchions look pristine, even frozen in time. Horses had been actively kept on the south side of the barn, however. For a short time, corn — as well as hay — was stored in the haymow to meet a premium price for a short-term government program.

The Harveys currently farm 440 acres, 70 of which they own. Ownership of the farm cascaded from his great-grandfather beginning in 1888, to his great-uncle Bill, and then to Dan in 2004.

“At one time, Harvey-related folks farmed over 1,700 acres in all directions,” said Dan. “The area was widely known as ‘Harvey-ville.’”

The blacksmith shop was built in 1919, and the corn crib in 1927, both from the same brick.

One leg of the corn crib is still able to store corn. Harvey’s greatgrandfather actively ground feed.

“I’ve been told that Golden Sun approached him, asking him to slow it down with the grinding,” Harvey said. “Grinding feed was becoming a thing of the past for individual farmers, and they were trying to get their foot into that business.”

Dan and Michelle have been grateful for the Iowa Barn Foundation’s part in helping them to revamp the roof.

“We need to have tuckpointing done on all the buildings,” said Harvey. “It’s important to our family to keep these buildings in as good condition as possible. There’s been hay and alfalfa in the loft, of course, and all three of our kids have been married there. We also have had 30 or more people for Thanksgiving seated there. The barn has served the Harveys in many ways for nearly a century.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

DAN AND MICHELLE HARVEY’S brick Emmet County barn was built by The Kalo Brick and Tile Company of Fort Dodge. It once housed horses and dairy cows.

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Preserved for years to come

By CLAYTON RYE

HAMPTON — From the blacktop, it is easy to see that the barn belonging to Galen and Marlene Eisentrager has been restored. The steel roof, red siding, and barn quilt all show that they want this barn to have many more useful years.

Franklin

If the passerby is either driving by slowly or is sharp-eyed, one more detail might grab their attention. In the center of the barn quilt, a fan of old tractors will recognize the emblem of an Oliver tractor.

Yes, Galen Eisentrager is a longtime fan of Oliver tractors.

Galen Eisentrager’s parents, Earl and Mildred Eisentrager, moved into the house on the farm in 1972.

According to Galen Eisentrager, the farming was done by his dad and four brothers.

Like many old barns, the years had taken a toll.

“It was about ready to fall down,” said Eisentrager.

He contacted a man from Greene, Iowa, to give the barn the improvements it needed. A work crew showed up and started the necessary repairs.

According to Eisentrager, the crew used only ladders to do their work, no scaffolding.

“They knew what they were doing,” he said.

The barn received new windows, and for convenience, sliding doors replaced doors on the upper level that before were on hinges.

White trim was installed near the peak of the roof to resemble the door of a

haymow although no door existed there. It was placed there to frame the barn quilt.

“That’s a fake haymow door,” said Eisentrager.

The barn has had a history of livestock, and the haymow is still in use.

“We farrowed hogs in there and sheep lambed in there,” said Eisentrager. “My brothers and I always had sheep.”

The barn is now used for beef cattle.

Eisentrager feeds about 10 head of cattle that are destined for meat lockers and, eventually, someone’s freezer. The calves arrive weaned and on full feed.

Eisentrager describes himself as semiretired. During harvest, he works as a truck driver and from spring through fall, has 27 lawns and a cemetery to mow, assisted by his wife Marlene and a grandson.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye WHEN GALEN AND MARLENE EISENTRAGER’S BARN received a new roof and siding, a white outline resembling a haymow door was made to frame a barn quilt that has an Oliver tractor emblem in the center.

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Greene Co. barn survived 2020 derecho

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Doug and Karen Lawton will never forget Aug. 10, 2020. By mid-morning, they headed to the basement after the sky turned dark, the wind started roaring, and rain and hail pummeled the area.

When they emerged 45 minutes later, they couldn’t believe what they saw. Buildings on their farmstead between Jefferson and Cooper were plastered with green leaves ripped from the trees. An 80,000-bushel bin at the grainhandling complex south of the house was demolished. Yet the old, wooden barn southeast of the house withstood the vicious storm, which packed winds of 75 to 85 miles per hour.

“That barn has survived a lot through the years,” said Doug Lawton, who is the fourth generation of his family to live and work on this Franklin Township farm.

Lawton’s great-greatgrandfather, Peter Lawton, settled in the area around 1875. While the family doesn’t know exactly when their 62-foot by 76-foot barn was built, it was likely circa 1900.

Like many families, the Lawton family lost their farm to an insurance company during the Great Depression, although they re-acquired the property later. The barn was always a hub of activity.

“My grandma and grandpa chose the smallest bedroom in the house, so they could keep an eye

on the barn,” said Lawton, who noted the 1907 house was one of the first in the township to have electricity. “My grandparents could turn on a switch in their bedroom to turn on a light by the barn.”

By the 1950s and 1960s, the barn played an important role in the family’s cattle business, which included 2,500 cattle on feed, according to a newspaper article about Lawton Associated Farms. An aerial photo with the article showed the barn and nearby feedlots, noting that the business was the largest beef operation in Greene County.

The barn included a cattleloading chute on the north side of the west wall, Lawton noted.

The barn was also reconfigured to accommodate the horses that were used in the family’s cattle business.

When Lawton was growing up, the barn also housed a few dairy cows that the family milked by hand. The barn wasn’t all work and no play, though. “I ran track when I was in junior high,” Lawton recalled. “I put a mattress on top of some hay in the barn and also put up a bar so I could practice high jumping.”

Through the years, the Lawtons have invested in improvements to preserve the barn. “My dad, Gerald, never wanted to tear down the barn, and we’ve never seriously considered taking it down,” he said. “I can’t imagine this place without a barn.”

The Lawtons hired an Amish crew of four to five men from southern Iowa a few years ago to put steel siding and a steel roof on the barn. They completed the work in four days.

“The foreman commented that this is a good old barn,” Lawton said.

Today, the barn houses two 4-H calves that the Lawtons’ grandson Nathan Towers is raising.

Karen Lawton, who grew up in Greenbrier Township in Greene County, is glad the Lawton family’s barn endures.

“A lot of barns have been torn down, including the one on the farm where I grew up. A barn is what makes a place feel like a farm.”

THIS SWIFT MINERALS SIGN adorns one side of the Lawton barn.

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

DOUG AND KAREN LAWTON stand in front of their Greene County barn, which is located between Jefferson and Cooper.

A storehouse of memories

By LORI BERGLUND WEBSTER CITY —

Some memories live forever. Old barns have been used to house livestock, store hay and grain, provide a playground for kids in the haymow, and for many grown-up farm kids, they are also a storehouse of memories.

hamilton

Al Yungclas still remembers the night nearly 70 years ago when his parents wouldn’t let him come to the big party in the family’s brand-new barn. To be fair, Al was just a little sprout at the time.

“The barn had just been built, and my parents were having a dance in here and Mom wouldn’t let me come,” he recalled with a soft smile at her memory. “I was 3 years old, seeing all these people come for a party, and I couldn’t go.”

Al’s parents, the late Bruce and Patty Yungclas, have been gone a few years now, but they are still well-known and quite fondly remembered throughout Hamilton County. It is so easy to imagine this funloving couple dancing up a storm to all hours of the evening back in 1953. Bruce, a World War II veteran and former POW, was now living life to the fullest. He and Patty married in 1948 and quickly started their own family of little Baby Boomers.

This is a barn, just a few miles west of Webster City on old Highway 20, that has known some living over the years. Al is the fourth generation of his family to call the place home.

“My great-grandfather bought this half section in 1889,” he said. “His name was Henry Theodore and his wife was Anna May. She said she wasn’t going to live with his folks, so he had to build the house before she would marry him.”

Al and wife Karin still live in the house today, although it’s changed considerably since that time. The original home includes only the kitchen and dining room of the modern home today. The original barn was built in 1904 and actually facilitated some modern conveniences that were hard to come by, especially on farms of that day and time.

“My great-grandfather put a tank in the haymow,” Yungclas said. “The windmill would pump water up and fill the tank, and he piped the water into the house. He was kind of an inventor, and they actually had water pressure in the house.”

The 1904 barn had a similar footprint as the current 1953 barn, at about 130 feet

long and 40 feet wide, but the older barn had a larger haymow. To build that first barn, it literally took an entire lumberyard.

“When Grandpa built the barn in 1904, he bought a lumberyard in Highview, and tore it down to use here, plus new lumber,” Yungclas said.

In its early days, the barn had 12 milking stalls on one end, while horses were kept on the opposite end. It was an active farm, growing a family as well as grain and livestock.

“My dad grew up on this farm, and both him and my grandfather, Bill Yungclas, were born in the house,” Yungclas said.

The original barn would stay in use

until June 1953, when a tornado swept through the area and blew it down into a heap. The replacement would have to go up quickly in order to provide shelter for the animals in time for winter.

“They had to build something in a hurry,” Yungclas explained.

Pre-formed rafters were used to create the curve-roof barn. And although the new barn went up quickly, nothing was sacrificed in quality, as evidenced by its longevity and good condition yet today.

The pre-formed rafters are several layers of fir glued together. The arch of the roof actually creates a stronger structure, allowing wind to sweep over it.

“It’s well-built and it’s a strong shape,” Yungclas said. “The curves give it strength. When you have right angles and corners, that creates a weak spot.”

Over the decades, the new barn would be used to house perhaps 200 head of cattle, and later it would serve as part of the family hog operation. Painted numbers on the walls still reveal the placement of farrowing crates. The barn was used to farrow in the summer, but not in the winter, as it was not warm enough for baby pigs, Yungclas recalled.

Al and Karin are retired now, pursuing their passion for community theater, much as did his parents, Bruce and Patty, in their day. And the 1953 barn is still a great place for parties.

“When my daughter got married we had 200-plus people in here, tables, a band, and there was plenty of room,” he said.

The Yungclas family knows how to celebrate, and what better place than this barn, and this farm, home to so many generations. Sometimes, on rainy days Al and Karin will take a walk out to the barn, pull out some chairs, and sit and watch the rain fall. Perhaps, if they listen carefully, they will hear the echoes of that long-ago barn dance that Al could only watch from afar.

Some memories really do live forever.

-Farm News photo by Lori Berglund

AL YUNGCLAS stands at the 1953 barn which replaced a 1904 version at the Yungclas farm west of Webster City.

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By CLAYTON RYE

BRITT

Home to livestock since 1917 hancock

— William Swyter

left Aplington and came to Britt to teach school, according to his grandson Ross Swyter, who today farms the land that William Swyter bought when he changed occupations.

William Swyter built a new barn in 1917 using clay tile bricks for the entire barn. The construction crew was composed of Bohemians from the nearby community of Duncan.

“It was a big project back then,” said Ross Swyter. “It was a state-of-the-art barn and the centerpiece of the farm.”

There is no steel in the footings, which flare at the bottom.

“They dug for days and days and days,” said Swyter. “They had darn good cement.”

A small square door on the west side above the main floor was where a ramp was located. This allowed wheelbarrows to

move brick and mortar from the ground to the haymow floor.

The barn was designed for horses and built to hold loose hay.

As the farm moved from horses to tractors, the horse stalls were converted for the raising of hogs.

Ross Swyter’s father, Carl, approved of the change. “Dad was glad to see them go,” he said.

The hogs were an important part of the farm during the 1930s.

“The hogs kind of got them out of the Depression,” said Swyter.

Besides hogs, chickens occupied part of the barn. There were 600 chickens located in three different areas of the farm.

Carl Swyter milked cows in the barn, according to his son. There were 10 stanchions built for eight cows. The stanchions remain in place in the barn today.

“Dad milked in the morning, my brother and I at night,” said Swyter.

When full, the haymow held 5,000 bales. “All summer, that’s all we did was bale hay,” said Swyter.

The dairying ended in 1968.

“It was about the time I graduated from high school,” he said.

Swyter suspects the loss of his son’s help influenced Carl Swyter’s decision to quit milking.

Ross Swyter joined the Navy and was discharged in May 1974. He worked for John Deere in Waterloo before returning to the farm.

He used the barn to feed out around 20 calves for 15 years using hay that he was able to bale when it was allowed on set-aside acres. The fattened calves were destined for meat lockers.

“We had a freezer full of beef,” said Swyter.

In recent years, the barn returned to a horse barn as the Swyter’s two daughters each had an Arabian horse in 4-H from third grade to high school.

Today, a quarter horse, a few chickens and several cats live in the barn.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

ROSS SWYTER’S BARN, constructed entirely of clay tile bricks, was a “state-ofthe-art barn” when built in 1917 by his grandfather.

By CLAYTON RYE

HUBBARD — Tim Dreier’s grandparents, Ernest and Bertha Dreier, bought bare prairie just before the turn of the century, at first living in a small shack.

A well-loved barn hardin

In 1909, the barn was built, the first of the outbuildings, by Bertha Dreier’s brothers who were carpenters.

Ernest Dreier passed away October 1918, as a result of the flu epidemic, leaving behind his wife, two daughters, and an 8-month-old son, Stan, who became Tim Dreier’s father.

Plans were made for a brick house. When Ernest Dreier died, only the house foundation and basement were completed. Bertha Dreier decided to move into town.

“Grandma didn’t want to be out on the farm in the winter with three children,” said Tim Dreier. “She rented a house in Hubbard and rented out the farmland.”

Three or four years after her husband’s death, Bertha married Paul Sievert, a widowed farmer from Minnesota. The couple rented a farm outside of Hubbard and completed the house. Building began in 1917 and was finished in 1927 or 1928.

They milked cows and raised pigs on their farm.

Speaking of his father, Stan, Tim Dreier said, “Dad grew up farming with his stepdad. Both loved horses.”

When Tim Dreier was 1 year old, the decision was made to quit milking. One row of stanchions was removed and replaced with horse stalls.

The barn went from dairy to draft horses. Then, in the early 1940s, to quarter horses. Every spring there were 20 newborn

quarter horse colts.

“My dad got big in the horse business,” said Tim Dreier. He was a founder of the Iowa Quarter Horse Association. “He still rode at age 92 or 93. Mom tolerated horses. She didn’t ride.”

“With cattle and horses, the hay loft had much use and was filled with hay every year,” he said. “Dad and two cousins owned a baler. They baled all summer to fill five barns.”

The haymow was emptied when the barn was rebuilt.

“We had a pile,” said Dreier. “That roof never leaked. Fortyyear-old bales still had leaves.”

The barn was refurbished in 2015. The interior was left in its original condition with horse collars and bridles still in place.

“This barn is a monument to my heritage, my grandparents, and my parents,” said Dreier.

Saturday, August 12

Saturday, October 7

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

TIM DREIER stands in front of the barn built by his grandfather, Ernest Dreier, in 1909.

LEFT: This photo is from the 1930s and shows Tim Dreier’s father, Stan, on the right, who learned a love of horses from his stepfather, Paul Sievert, on the left. -Submitted photo

‘It’s not a farm without a barn’

By HANS MADSEN

HUMBOLDT — Ed and

Gail

Smith aren’t exactly sure when the barn on their farmstead southeast of Humboldt was built.

“We really couldn’t come up with a time frame.” Ed Smith said.

They do, however, know where it was built and that wasn’t where it sits now. It was on a farm three miles east and two miles south.

The couple had the structure moved 21 years ago.

“Our barn was on the Harold and Floyd Lenning sale,” Gail Smith said. “It was advertised to be torn down. No one bid on it.”

“They wanted to sell it for salvage,” Ed Smith said. “No bids. I said, ‘If you give me the barn I’ll have it moved.’”

Before the crew from Vote House Moving, of Bradgate, could get it down the road. The Smiths had to clean It out.

“That barn was full of loose hay 7 (feet) deep,” he said. “He told us before they move it you have to get that hay out of there.”

Working by hand, the family got the hay cut apart, moved to an upstairs door, tossed out and then took it to a nearby field for burning with a skid loader.

Some of it was in surprisingly good condition.

“After the top 2 feet it was good enough to feed,” he said. “It was a hell of a job to get it out of there though.”

As part of the moving process, some of the siding and studding had to be removed.

Once on site, Ed Smith found the new replacement siding didn’t quite match the old. It wasn’t much different, but it just didn’t look right to his eye.

They decided to re-side the barn and had a steel roof installed as well.

“Gail and I did most of the red,” he said. “4 Seasons Construction did the rest.”

It is, of course, red.

The new siding is both practical and labor saving.

“I’m not painting this barn,” he said. “I remember repainting grandpa’s barn. We have steel and we can just be done with it.”

Several people had suggested other colors. They had a ready reply for that.

“No,” he said. “Barns are red.”

The interior of the barn was in excellent shape too. Ed Smith said it had sat empty

for about 40 years, being used mostly for storage. Once on the new foundation, he built several stalls to exactly match the original work horse stall. He also added a few pens. He did remove the milking stanchions though.

It’s also taller than it was originally.

“I raised it 16 inches so it has more headroom,” he said. “My son is 6 foot 8 inches and I’m 6 foot 1.”

The cow weathervane on top of the barn has an interesting family story to go with it.

“When Ed lived with his grandparents, George and Johanna Day, Roger Holton stopped and asked if he could buy the cow

on the barn. His grandpa George sold it to Roger.”

As barn moving day approached, Ed Smith called Holton.

“I asked him if by chance he might still have that,” Ed Smith said. “He said, ‘Yes, and you might as well have it.’ As we were putting the barn on the foundation, he drove in with the cow. It’s now back on the barn.”

The barn is completely functional and the Smiths have had a horse or two in residence while they were working with the animals. Most of the time, their horses stay in pasture.

“The downside is you have to clean up,” he said.

The barn is there for one simple reason. The couple love it. The moving and foundation work cost them $15,000, a sum that might have purchased a small machine shed. “It wouldn’t be a barn though. It’s the good old days,” he said. “It’s not a farm without a barn. It’s got to have a barn. I grew up around old barns.”

With the barn in good shape and with the new steel roof and siding, they expect it to be around for awhile.

“It should last for a long time,” he said. “The grandkids will enjoy it.”

“We are so proud of our barn,” Gail Smith added.

-Farm News photos by Hans Madsen

THE ED AND GAIL SMITH BARN southeast of Humboldt was originally built on another nearby farm. The couple moved the barn and restored it. RIGHT: The cow weather vane on the Ed and Gail Smith barn was originally on his grandfather’s barn.

Phillips barn echoes love of family farm

By DOUG CLOUGH

IDA GROVE — Tom Phillips, 85, was on track to manage a gas station like his father before him.

“I liked being around the station,” said Phillips. “Changing oil and tires, filling gas, and working with the guys was a good job. In high school, I worked at the station after classes for 50 cents an hour.”

In 1955, Tom married his high school sweetheart, Edna Mae Bumann; the newlyweds lived in Holstein where they formed card club friendships and started a family.

By February of 1964, the couple had seven children. “We’d gotten too big for the home we were in,” said Phillips, “so we went to Edna’s dad Ray to ask if we could borrow money toward a larger home. Ray looked at me and said, ‘I won’t lend you the money, but I do have an offer for you. A farm is a great place to raise a family. I want you to move to the farm we now rent; I want you to farm with the family.’”

It was an interesting offer for a town boy who hadn’t set as much as a foot in a barn. The couple loaded up their seven children, Teresa the oldest at 9 and Curtis just months old, and moved to their farm just south of Ida Grove off U.S. Highway 59.

“Looking back, I’m not sure how I would have supported our family working at a gas station,” said Tom. “Farming has been a good life, but it also was very good for raising 14 kids.”

Yes, you read that right; Tom and Edna Phillips had seven more children after their move to Ida Grove.

Phillips, as well as his nine boys, got plenty of good barn experience going forward. They used the multi-purpose building for 12

-Submitted photo

to 15 milking cows, as well as sorting pigs, and sheltering calves. The structure has been around since the early 1900s.

“We milked cows twice a day on the west side of the barn,” said Phillips. “Before my time, there were horses on the west side toward the house. The boys and I separated hogs using that part of the barn. Every time one of the girls heard a kitten in the haymow, up they went!”

Phillips also kept fat cattle in a shed on

ABOVE: Tom Phillips stands near his barn on his Ida County farm where he and his wife raised their 14 children.

LEFT: Edna Phillips was known for her farm meal preparation, which led to the cooking show “My Grandmother’s Ravioli” visiting the Phillips’ farm in 2016. Here, Tom and Edna Phillips stand with Mo Rocca, the host of the show.

the southeast part of the farm and housed 200 chickens at a time in a coop to the east of their farmstead. There are remnants of grain storage areas in three parts of the current ground.

“We farmed 160 acres, rotating corn and beans,” said Phillips. “Most of our corn went to feeding our 140 head of cattle. We used the husks and cobs for bedding.”

One of the grain storage areas kept corn on the cobs, which would eventually be

shelled by “Sheller Pete,” a corn sheller who made his way around to many of the neighbors’ farms at harvest time.

Phillips’ wife of 65 years, Edna Mae, passed away in January 2021. She was known for her farm meal preparation, which led to the cooking show “My Grandmother’s Ravioli” visiting the Phillips’ farm in 2016. Mo Rocca, the host as well as CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, said at the time, “Edna happens to really like cooking and knows a lot about it. She is confident and has opinions. That’s always entertaining and interesting. Seeing her interact with Tom is inspiring as they are clearly nuts about each other. There is an easiness about them together and with their kids. This family is a happy one; everyone has an easy laugh and gets along well. When you come [to the farm], everyone seems content and in the important ways, happy.”

Throughout the years, the largest percentage of the food that made it to their table, and into the field at harvest time, was a product of the barn’s doing or the family’s large garden — along with Edna’s ability to feed such a large family.

The barn wasn’t always about work and the resulting food though: “There was time when Dad would scoop snow, and there’d be big piles of it down by the barn,” said daughter Shari Simmons of Danbury. “We’d climb the barn roof and put our bodies into feed sacks and cardboard boxes and then come down off that roof. It didn’t faze us at all to come off that barn roof, because Dad would level off that snow pile right where the tin roof started!”

Perhaps Curt Phillips, the seventh child of Tom and Edna, summed up the family’s life on the farm best: “I followed my father’s footsteps by farming. Even today, I favor working with livestock. It’s a good life. It keeps your family together and keeps you close. As we get older, we still have fun with one another.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

A new memory for an old barn

By CLAYTON RYE

CORWITH

— The barn on the Dwight and Donna Nall Century Farm was built in 1920 for horses, dairy cows and chickens.

kossuth

The horses were replaced in the mid-1940s with a B John Deere.

The farm’s ownership began with great-grandfather Ernest Applegate in 1902. His daughter Sylva was born in the Nall’s home. She married Clarence Nall and they were parents to Richard Nall, Dwight’s father.

Richard Nall was farming on his own in the mid-1950s and farmed for the next 50 years. He was still driving the combine at age 89.

“It was hard to keep him out of the combine,” said Dwight Nall.

At age 60, Dwight Nall’s earliest memory of the barn is driving the tractor that pulled the rope lifting the bales into the haymow when he was around 5 or 6 years old.

“It was before I was in school,” he said.

The barn was used to finish feeder pigs in the ’70s and for farrowing in the ’80s. A leanto on the east side was added in 1992 for farrowing.

Dwight Nall was told by his

dad, Richard Nall, to “keep hay in it or it will blow away.”

It takes 1,500 bales to fill the haymow. The mow has held both hay and straw bales, plus bales of straw with oats that had not been combined as they were baled on set-aside acres.

The barn is still in use with a few cattle and pigs.

In 2008, Richard Nall looked at the barn and gave his son Dwight some advice.

“You need to fix this,” he told his son.

The north and west sides of the barn received new siding and a new roof in 2008. The south side got new siding in 2014.

ABOVE: The barn on the Dwight and Donna Nall farm was built in 1920. Renovations began in 2008 and were completed in 2015.

-Submitted photo

LEFT: Dwight Nall’s father, Richard Nall, holds the rope as hay is lifted into the haymow the oldfashioned way in this photo from 1989.

“By then we were committed,” said Dwight Nall. The barn’s renovation was completed in 2015.

Dwight and Donna Nall’s three children kept calves and sheep in the barn when they were 4-H members.

Last Sept. 3, Labor Day, the barn took on added importance when Benjamin Dirks of Monticello proposed to Dwight and Donna’s daughter Jordan in front of the barn. Dirks had already asked her parents if they approved beforehand.

Of course, they approved. The wedding will be next June.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

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A place for friends to gather

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

ST. GEORGE — If buildings could talk, a beautiful barn in St. George can share some interesting stories.

The wooden structure, currently owned by James and Ruth Ackerman called RiverView Barn, was built to replace a similar barn originally built in the late 1800s and today helps create memories.

The couple owns 160 acres that they actively farm in addition to renting their barn for special events. Perched near the river, the scenery is gorgeous for guests.

“It is very beautiful scenery, as everyone tells us. We do enjoy living here by the river as it is beautiful,” said Ruth Ackerman. “We have so much wildlife here, too. We have a couple eagles that grace us with

their presence and we have deer, badger, woodchucks, muskrats, along with other wildlife. The photographers tell us this is a great photo opportunity.”

The first barn to occupy the farm was constructed with all wood and the current barn was built similarly in 1958, but with a block basement and wood for the rest of the barn.

“With the block, it was easier to keep it cooler in the barn when milking,” Ruth Ackerman said.

The barn, which measures 54by-32 feet, features a haymow. When the Ackermans bought the land with the barn in 1988, they raised hogs and cattle for approximately 20 years.

See LYON, Page 69

-Submitted photo

OVER THE YEARS, the Ackermans have added several features to their barn, known as “RiverView Barn,” including this deck on the barn’s south side with a patio door leading into the haymow.

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER STATE CENTER

— For years, the Pfantz family barn in Marshall County's State Center has drawn visitors from near and far.

Historic barn greets Christmas tree guests marshall

Built in 1906-1907, the barn originally was constructed by Craig Pfantz's greatgrandfather on his mother's side, August Riemenschneider, to house a team of horses along with feed and hay storage. He also constructed other outbuildings on the farm and the house.

“My great-grandfather was a livestock buyer and he built the farmstead near his stockyard and office, which were located along the railroad tracks about 100 yards from the house,” Pfantz said. “When I was growing up, we raised hogs in the barn. Now we have a Christmas tree farm and the barn is used as the sales center and for storage.”

As the fourth generation to farm the land, the Pfantzes also raise corn, soybeans, oats and hay.

Craig Pfantz grew up on the home place a quarter of a mile away, but now

he lives in the stunning Victorian house located near the barn, the perfect echo of the architecture used when designing the gorgeous historic barn.

The Pfantzes’ seasonal business, Victorian Pines Christmas Tree Farm, started in 2006 as a father-son business between Pfantz and his son Ryan.

The iconic red barn, lovingly tended to by lifelong farmer Craig Pfantz, provides the perfect bright red backdrop during a snowy scene where Christmas trees dot the landscape. The first trees were planted in 2006 and the barn opened as an integral part of the business in 2011. Ryan's wife Tara also helps with the family business. Earlier this year, the Pfantzes were able to get the farmstead listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which took

See MARSHALL, Page 69

-Submitted photo BUILT IN THE EARLY 1900s, the Pfantz family barn in Marshall County is now the sales center for the family’s Christmas tree farm business.

Battaglioli barn big on history of farming

By DOUG CLOUGH

GRANVILLE — Pam Battaglioli is a California girl, but you’d never know it based on her affinity for her O’Brien County barn.

“My parents were both from Iowa and both farm kids,” said Battaglioli, “but when my dad went into the Air Force, and then Korea, he moved to California. I was born and raised there, married my husband Dave, and then moved to Iowa. Long Beach was not as safe as it was when I was growing up, and the cost to live there kept growing. We had an opportunity to move in 1996, so here we are ... and very happily so.”

Battaglioli’s barn was built in 1933 between June 7 and July 12.

The labor was performed by carpenters Fred Boesche and Matt Marx, along with helper Louie Wittrock. The carpenters were paid 30 cents an hour and their helper 25 cents. With 844 total hours, the labor to build the 42-by-60-foot barn was just over $238. There is no record of material cost.

Albert Kuester, the original owner, was said to have a couple barn dances to celebrate the completion.

“I was told that this is a general-purpose barn,” said Battaglioli. “There are milking stanchions on the south side and horse stalls on the north side. The center of the barn was used to hold feed and bedding for the livestock. It still amazes me that this is how people lived; the daily hard work is something easily imagined when you are in this barn.”

Battaglioli’s father loved to bring farming artifacts to the barn, some tonguein-cheek — a cattle skull is mounted with the name “Elsie” above it. Others, like a tool sharpener with pedals, were just a part of the hard work of the day. Twohorse team “eveners” are mounted on the

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

THE BATTAGLIOLI BARN in O’Brien County was built in the summer of 1933 and took about 844 hours to build.

By DOUG CLOUGH

OCHEYEDAN — From County Road

A34, Ed and Carrie Jones’ barn is not hard to miss. You might even say that a poor baseball pitcher could hit that broad side of their barn.

Jones barn boasts new coat of red osceola

Just recently, the Jones couple had their barn painted classic, well, barn-red. It was surprising to find that the 40-foot floor-topeak structure — tall enough to broadcast the farm’s Wi-Fi signal — only used 20 gallons of paint to make a great-looking barn stand out for miles around.

That is until you go around to the east side and see it is only 8 feet tall on the side which was utilized for milking. And it’s the same height on the west side where horses were cared for early in the barn’s history. With a slope this steep, a new tin roof installed some time ago, required 37foot long sheets.

That’s a lot of white juxtaposed with the freshly painted red — a striking structure to take in.

The barn was built by Carrie’s paternal

great-grandfather August Ewald, and it was the first building erected on the farm. The grain bin was built to the west of the farm, with August Ewald’s name in the concrete dated October of 1938. The granary has since been repurposed for family to overnight in while visiting or for their son — aptly named August — to have sleepovers.

Seventeen-year-old August represents the fifth generation on the farm.

The barn is an open hayloft construction with the center a dirt floor where loose hay was piled.

It wasn’t until square bales became more prevalent did the sides’ ceilings store hay. Ed and Carrie currently have 700 acres of farmland. “From May to September, we rent 92 acres of pasture

See OSCEOLA, Page 69

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

ED, CARRIE AND THEIR SON AUGUST stand in front of their Osceola County barn, which has recently been painted classic, barn red.

‘Grandpa’s barn’ in the family for 75 years

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

When it comes to old barns, the farm families who own them often know quite a bit of the buildings’ history, but some facts have faded as the years have passed.

“Our family has owned our barn for the last 75 years,” said Wendi Crawford, who lives with her husband, Dan, and their family on the Fern Valley Township farm where the barn is located. “We have reason to believe the barn is much older, however. The Palo Alto County courthouse records show a build date of 1900, which I was told is a date they put in their system when they’re unsure of the date the barn was built.”

The barn, which is located between Rodman and West Bend, came into the family in 1947, when Michael and Clara Bonnstetter purchased the farm from the John Laubenthal estate. (John and Margaret Laubenthal had purchased the farm in 1913.)

By the mid-1950s, the barn housed dairy cows, said Crawford, who noted that the Bonnstetter’s daughter, Mary, and her husband, Rex Crawford, lived on the farm at that time.

“When their son Jim was a young boy, he was attacked by a cow, needed lots of stitches and had to spend several days in the hospital,” Crawford said. “Rex got rid of the cows after that and moved pigs into the barn.”

Rex was a decorated World

Palo alto

War II veteran who had been stationed in England during the war. He served as a flight engineer top turret gunner on a B17 heavy bomber and completed 36 missions over the European Theater of Operations, Dan Crawford said.

Rex lived on the farm until 2017, when Dan and Wendi and their family moved there.

In recent years, their barn has provided shelter for farm dogs and barn cats.

“When little pigs have fallen off passing semi-trucks, we tried to rescue them and raised a few in the barn,” noted Wendi Crawford, whose family raises corn and soybeans.

In June 2018, the west side of the barn provided a unique wedding backdrop for Samantha (Hollingsworth) Walton and her husband, Cody.

“Samantha is my cousin from Minneapolis, and she loves the barn,” said Crawford, who added that the couple held their wedding dinner and dance on the farm.

In the last few years, the barn has served a new purpose — housing firewood. Three generations of the family, including Crawford’s parents (John and Jodi Rutledge), Dan and Wendi Crawford, and their children (Krayton, 15; Nash, 9; Kree, 7; and Atlee Grace, 4) work together to split, dry and

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

DAN AND WENDI

CRAWFORD are shown here in front of their family's Palo Alto County barn in late October 2022 with their children, including (back row, left to right) Atlee Grace and Krayton, and (front row, left to right) Nash and Kree.

-Submitted photo

REX CRAWFORD, a World War II veteran, lived on the farm until he passed away in 2017.

deliver firewood locally.

“The barn offers a good place to dry the firewood, which takes about a year,” said Wendi Crawford, who works in loan administration at Iowa Trust and Savings Bank in Emmetsburg.

“This hobby offers family bonding, plus it’s even more fun, because we use the money from selling firewood to go on a vacation each year.”

While the Crawfords have talked about building a new machine shed in the future, the barn remains an important part of the farm for now. “This was Grandpa Rex’s barn for years before he passed away in 2017,” Wendi Crawford said. “There’s a lot

history here.”

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Friday November 25th and Saturday, November 26th 209 7th Street, Correctionville, Iowa

Friday 5:00 p.m.

Online Only Auction of tools, livestock, equipment, small trailers, lawn mowers and other acreage related items.

Including: IH Wheel Weights, Coates Tire Machine, Coates Spin Balancer, Skid Tree Spade, New Skid Attachments, Aladdin Pressure Washer Lots of Concrete and Construction Tools...

Saturday 10:00 a.m.

Live and Online Auction of Large Items and Machinery

Tractors, Skidloaders, Trencher, and Attachments: ’21 John Deere 3039R with Loader (35 Hours, MFWD, Cab, Quick Hitch), John Deere 6215 (Power Quad, 2500 hours), John Deere 3010 (Gas), John Deere 2510 (Gas, Powershift), John Deere 1520 Utility (Diesel), John Deere 1020 High Crop Utility (Diesel, Nice), John Deere 730 (Diesel, Parts Tractor, Three Point), ’14 Case IH Farmall 85 C (385 hours, MFWD, Cab), ’17 Case IH Farmall 75C with L630 Loader (217 hours, MFWD, Cab), Case IH 7130 Magnum (MFWD), ’66 International 656 Utility (Gas, Fast Hitch plus Adapter), Farmall B, Case 1825 Skidloader (976 hours, Auger, Forks), Mustang 330 Skidloader, Ditch Witch 3500 Trencher (Diesel), Tillage, Planting, Spraying, Equipment: John Deere Disk (12’), IH 900 Cyclo Planter (8 row, 30 John Deere 7000 Planter (6 row, 30”),Kinze 3000 (6 row, 30”, Interplants), Fast 9610 Sprayer (60’ Boom), Fimco Sprayer (500 Gallon), Ag Chem 844 Row Gator, SMC Hydraulic Drive Fertilizer Cart, Hay and Livestock Equipment: 8312 Disk Mower, Hayliner 37 In Line Hay Trailer, Case IH Magnum 6000 Gallon Honeywagon, Gehl 170 Feedwagon, Holcomb 1200 Scraper...

Combine, Heads, Wagons, Grain Handling: IH 1420 Combine (Used this fall), Two J and M Gravity Wagons, Bradford Gravity Wagon, Dakon Gravity Wagon, 25+ Gravity Wagons (From a Single Owner), Augers: Feterl 10x72, Westfield 13x40, Peck 12x35, Peck 10x30, Three Westfield Hydraulic Truck Hoppers, Pickups, Trailers, Gator: Custom Mini-Peterbuilt 359 Pickup (5.9 Cummins, 5 Speed, Sharp!), ’97 Dodge 3500 (Diesel, Ext. Cab, 5 Speed), Farm Dump Trailer (16’), ’67 Jeep Pickup (4x4), John Deere 825i Gator (S4, 371 Hours).

Note: Please Notice that the small item auction is online-only and a standard 10% Buyer’s Premium will apply. The large item auction will have no buyer’s premium in person and a 3% online. Pick up and payment of online purchases will be Saturday from 1:00-5:00 p.m. along with Monday and Tuesday 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

Drop-offs taken and loader available 9:00 am - 5:00 pm until November 18th (excluding Sundays). Earlier drop offs by appointment. To consign, call Kurt Paulsen (712) 870-8182

Paulsen Auctions 712-870-8182 www.paulsenauctions.com

Hallberg Auction LLC (800) 373-2255 www.hallbergauction.com

Four generations of barn stories

By DOUG CLOUGH

IRETON — Norm Barker, 102, will tell you that the round roof of the Barker-Johnson barn was the first of its kind in “the neighborhood.” He was only 2 years old when it was built, and we’re sure that info was passed down from his parents, the firstgeneration owners.

Notably, this barn is rich in family history with four generations having farmed on this section of land in northern Plymouth County — all active in barn use and upkeep.

William and Caroline Barker, Norm’s parents and 1920 newlyweds, built the barn in 1921. The lumber came into Craig by rail, and William brought it to the quarter section on their Model T pickup truck. Ruth, 94, and Norm’s bride of 71 years, said, “There were three workers from LeMars who built the barn in five weeks. They stayed on the property and, as part of the deal, were fed three meals a day — all made by Caroline.”

Neil Wiltgen was the carpenter who was paid 85 cents an hour; his two helpers earned 70 cents an hour. The labor added up to just over $725.

Wiltgen, whose family, Barker tells us, is still in generational business, was indeed a creative, skilled carpenter. “For the rafters, he nailed six boards together,” stated Barker. “With a saw powered by a one-cylinder engine, he cut the boards into round rafters.”

The net result was a hay loft constructed with little lumber waste, and no support beams

Plymouth

to allow for maximum storage. Another unusual part of the building was three bins at the west side of the loft for storing oats and alfalfa. Four dormer windows provide light in the haymow and ventilation pipes carried air to separate cupolas.

The middle and south section of the barn was built for milk cows. There was room for six cows, which were milked twice a day and fed in the middle of the barn. Milking had to be done by lanternlight until electricity was brought to the stanchions with two bulbs.

Norm was not a fan of milking cows, and Ruth wasn’t really keen on cleaning the cream separators, so the couple stopped the practice in 1952 when a Hawarden creamery opened a rural route.

“We had four work horses on the north end,” said Norm. “Part of the chores was taking them out of the barn to water and then back to feed. Our horses liked to shade by the big haystack, and one toppled the stack on itself, suffocating it. It was the early ’40s, and we didn’t replace the horse because we had a tractor by that time.”

One week before Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Barkers purchased a Farmall B400 tractor; during the war, they dismantled their 1929 Titan International Harvester, the steel donated to World War II efforts.

Ruth recalls when Norm handpicked corn on their then-240 acre farm.

“If corn pickers hadn’t been invented, I don’t think he would have kept farming,” she said. “The wind and dirt constantly blew in his face. It was as dirty of a job as any.”

Norm continued: “Of course, we were tied to the farm more in those days. Harvest took longer, and we had to let the livestock out twice a day to water and then feed.”

Over the course of a year, the Barkers managed over a thousand growing pigs and some sows.

In 1952, the Barkers added a lean-to at the east side of the

barn. Beef cows and growing pigs would be housed there.

Barker’s father William hauled six to eight pigs to the Sioux City Stockyards in their Model T pickup. The trip would take half a day for the 30-mile trip to and from the stockyards.

Norm and Ruth’s son Jim remembers his dad making room for a basketball hoop in the haymow during the 1960s when he was in middle school. He also recalls going from hammering mill with the tractor to an electric grinder to mix oats and protein with feed.

Jim Barker was active on their farm — at that time 440 acres — with his parents and three sisters. In adulthood, he moved a couple miles away onto his own property.

“I’ve scooped plenty of oats into the bins up in that hayloft,” he said.

The Barker’s daughter Joann married Carl Johnson, becoming the third generation to manage the property and care for the barn. They lived on the property beginning in 1979. During their tenure, they used hoop barns for weaning pigs to grow them. Farrowing was no longer done at the barn.

The Barkers and Johnsons enjoyed a partnership with pigs and crops. In 2006, a barn quilt was added to the south end with all the colors from the schools where the Barker grandchildren attend: South Dakota State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University, and St. Olaf.

Today, Carl and Joann’s daughter Janelle Johnson, along with husband Ben and son Noah, comprise the fourth generation providing upkeep to the BarkerJohnson Barn. “One of the first things I remember doing was running through waist-high soybeans to catch pigs that had gotten out of their pen,” said Janelle. “It wasn’t too long after that we decided to not be in the hog business anymore — that was a nice change.”

And while there isn’t any more livestock in the BarkerJohnson barns, all involved are very active with crops, which have grown to 1,600 acres.

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-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

THE BARKER-JOHNSON BARN, with it’s round roof, was considered one of the first of its kind when it was built in 1921.

-Submitted photo

LEFT: Norm Barker is pictured on the farm at age 3.

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

LAURENS — In 1912, an iceberg sank the “practically unsinkable” Titanic, Iowa recorded its coldest-ever temperature at Washta (minus 47 degrees that January), and George Ferguson built an attractive, new barn and corn crib in Pocahontas County north of Laurens.

“As you look at the walls and roof, it’s amazing how these old barns were built,” said Terry Ferguson, who noted that George was a cousin of her husband, Craig’s, grandfather.

This barn was built in the midst of America’s golden age of agriculture (which spanned roughly 1897-1918). As America’s urban population expanded in the early 1900s, demand for farm products grew. Iowa farming shifted from subsistence agriculture to a major business enterprise defined by high levels of production, strong commodity prices and major investments in farm improvements.

Ceramic blocks offered a durable building option for barns in this era. The blocks were also larger than conventional bricks, which helped reduce construction time. Unique features of the Ferguson’s barn, which originally housed dairy cows and draft horses, include the curved block on the corners, and the haymow that is anchored with iron that’s visible on the outside.

There’s still a center hay-drop door in the haymow, although some parts of the barn have been modified. Cement feeders in the alley that once fed dairy cows remain, although gutters in the floor were filled with cement in the 1960s.

When Craig’s father, Marvin, raised hogs in the barn, steps to the haymow could be pulled up by a chain.

While the barn also housed sheep in years past, it has been used for raising beef cattle, too. Ferguson and her husband, Craig, who have lived on this Century Farm in Swan Lake Township since 1978, have four horses, including American paint

horses and quarter horses, that live in the barn today.

Ferguson family’s 1912 barn home to horses Pocahontas

The couple has worked hard to maintain the barn. Around 2003, a bad windstorm ripped off the cupola. “A guy by Marathon had a similar cupola, so we traded my husband’s Honda motorcycle for it,” Ferguson said.

Around 2003-2004, they hired Simpson Construction of Marathon to re-roof the barn.

The cupola was also replaced, and the barn was painted and tuckpointed, plus the foundation was stabilized.

Barns have long been important to Ferguson, who grew up on a farm near Sac City.

“I liked the barn on that farm,” said Ferguson, a family and consumer sciences teacher at Storm Lake High School. “Unfortunately, a tornado destroyed that barn around 1970.”

The Fergusons’ barn was included on the Iowa Barn Foundation’s All-State Barn tour for the first time in 2004. Visitors got to see the barn and the distinctive “conehead” corncrib nearby.

“The corncrib originally had a rounded roof, but when it needed repairs in the 1960s, the contractor installed the pointed roof,” Ferguson said.

Through the years, the barn and corncrib have been featured on a number of Iowa Barn Foundation tours, which attract visitors from across Iowa, as well as other states. The Ferguson’s barn was mentioned in a travel article in the Los Angeles Times about the

2015 All-State Barn Tour.

As time has passed, the barn’s exterior wood no longer holds paint. The couple plans to cover

this area with steel siding. “The barn has evolved through the years, and we want to keep it in good shape,” Ferguson said.

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby CRAIG AND TERRY FERGUSON have lived on their Century Farm in Swan Lake Township since 1978. They are pictured here with their grandson, Denver Ferguson, 4. LEFT: Terry Ferguson and Denver Ferguson stand near where the horses are feeding.

Barn built as home transformed into event site

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER ELKHART

— A custom built barn nestled on Cindy Kirschbaum’s family farm outside Elkhart in Polk County started out as the concept for a unique home, then transformed into the perfect spot for special events and gatherings.

Polk

“My husband Ray had always wanted to build a barn and in 2015, he had time to work on it,” said Cindy Kirschbaum. “The outside of the barn was finished before winter in 2015. Then it sat empty until 2018. It is a stick frame building with trusses, but the inside is finished to look like a post beam barn.

Ray Kirschbaum did all the work with some help from our families. He didn’t have a print to go from, just started with a large frame and went from there. In 2018 we added restrooms, heating and air conditioning and a finished floor. The kitchen was started in 2019 and is now complete.”

Initially the barndominium idea would be to have a fully functioning home with a large family room.

But after putting in the work, the

Kirschbaums decided to leave it as one large open space perfect for family gettogethers and continued to live in their 100-year-old home situated next to the barn.

“As it kept evolving, we decided we should share it with others and decided to rent it out for events,” Kirschbaum said.

The first official event the family hosted was a farm-to-table dinner for 110 guests. They were asked to step in at the last minute and host it after the client’s venue was canceled.

“We had to make a quick decision on whether to have this be our first event. When we decided to go for it, we had to have a name for the venue. There is a big

oak tree between the barn and the road, so The Big Oak Barn was chosen as the name,” Kirschbaum explained.

So far, the family has held the Farm Edition Handmade Hootenanny with 22 vendors, several murder mystery dinners, graduation open houses, employee appreciation celebrations and birthday parties. They have also hosted several business meetings.

The barn can seat upwards of 120 guests, but currently organizers are limiting capacity to 75 people to accommodate parking. The barn has a full kitchen, custom-made bar, restrooms and a large deck overlooking the nearby timber.

-Submitted photos

THIS POLK COUNTY BARN , originally built to be a home, has been transformed into a place for special events and gatherings.

THE BIG OAK BARN in Polk County was named after a big oak tree that stands between the barn and the road.

“My husband Ray had always wanted to build a barn and, in 2015, he had time to work on it.”

CINDY KIRSCHBAUM Barn owner

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EARLY — Gene and Sandy

Weitzel’s barn has told stories through the decades, even more than a century’s worth. A big part of its history is that this barn is “big.”

Weitzel barn big on history and, well, just BIG sac

For those who like numbers, the Weitzel barn is 60 feet wide, 88 feet long, and 50 feet high at its peak; that’s 264,000 square feet of space, most of it utilitarian. It has three tracks for hay lifting, storage, and delivery to several drops for livestock. It has housed 28 horses and the same number of milking cows.

The Weitzel barn has been a busy, big barn.

Weitzel’s grandfather, George Philip (GP), purchased the land in 1874 at just 23 years of age. In 1902, he raised the barn on this Sac County farm.

He most likely brought the wood in by rail, and it was constructed with wooden pegs. It was a time when nails cost a premium. The original foundation is rock and mortar, with some patchwork over time.

Now, 120 years later, the construction is sturdy as ever, a testament to the carpentry skills of those who made this behemoth a reality.

In 1907, GP attached a sizable shed to his barn to aid in the care of his 380 head of cattle. In 1921, his corncrib burned to the ground.

“What I find incredible is that the fire didn’t leap to the barn or other buildings,” said Gene Weitzel. “The farm could have been a total loss with the livestock.” The corncrib was rebuilt in 1922.

In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt created the Work Progress Administration (WPA) to alleviate one of the toughest unemployment times in the

nation’s history — and the Weitzel barn was there to support the effort. “The creek to the west needed to be straightened,” said Weitzel, “and a new bridge built. GP provided barn space and care for the workers’ horses. He was paid 50 cents a head for the work.”

The WPA administrator must have been pleased to see the size

ABOVE: Gene and Sandy were married in 1970 and earned ownership of the farm in 1977 after partnering with Gene’s father.

LEFT: Gene Weitzel stands in front of the family’s century barn, which was raised by his grandfather, George Philip (GP) in 1902.

-Submitted photo

BELOW: This photo shows the barn raising in 1902. Constructed with wooden pegs, the wood was likely brought in by rail.

of that barn.

In 1942, GP’s son Albert John (AJ) garnered ownership of the Weitzel farm after partnering with his father to the farm’s success.

“I remember becoming active on the farm around 1955 when I was 11 years old,” said Gene

Weitzel. “I was raking hay, taking care of little calves, and had my own litter of pigs. Cleaning out the chicken coop was my least favorite thing to do.”

During his father’s tenure,

See SAC, Page 69

-Farm News photos by Doug Clough

Buyert barn a benevolent symbol

By DOUG CLOUGH

HULL — In 1964, Laurie Buyerts’ parents bought a quarter section just to the north of their own farmstead. The section came with farmland and a barn that was to be a large part of her formative years.

“It was a dairy barn when my parents first acquired it,” said Buyert. “In the late ’60s, Dad was using it for a cattle and hog operation. I was a kid who loved it as a playground. Every time we talked about this land, we would refer to it as ‘The North Place.’ I’ve spent a lot of time in the barn’s hayloft.”

The exact build date of the barn is unknown, but the Buyerts have been told by visitors that the peg fasteners and beam size indicate the barn is well over 100 years old.

Laurie and her husband Dan are now the owners.

“We have 250 acres for crop rotation,” said Buyert. “I’ve run the combine for the past couple years now. We have a cowcalf herd, and I’ve raised pigs all my life.”

As for the barn, however, it’s become a family and neighbor gathering place, a structure that holds and makes memories.

“I was so fortunate to have been blessed with the parents I’ve had,” stated Buyert. “They always had an open door of hospitality. There was a small home on the property that they rented next-to-nothing to married college students out of Orange City. Mom was a wonderful cook who never let anyone go away hungry.”

Married in 1981, Dan and Laurie made a family of their own, two boys and two girls all grown now and living in the area. During the years they raised their children, the family barn started to show its age.

“My husband was concerned about the

liability. He said it was time to either push it over or save it,” said Buyert. “We decided to save it. People thought we were crazy.

“It’s not hard to explain. This is the place where I played in the hay, and where there were kittens. It was a great place to be a kid, and I wouldn’t have wanted to raise my kids anywhere else. This is part of who I am.”

In 2017, the Buyerts worked with The Barn Doctors restoration outfit out of Minnesota to restore the 42-foot by 46foot structure. First, the barn needed to be straightened out and have a foundation

placed under it. Next, new doors and windows installed and a concrete floor poured. Dan insisted, for safety, the haymow ladder be replaced with a stairway.

“Can you believe we don’t trust people today to know how to use a ladder?” said Laurie Buyert.

“Seems like no one has common sense any more.” The Buyerts left one of the six holes in the hayloft, so people knew it was an important part of the barn; there is a fence around it for safe measure. Support beams from other barns were repurposed as was shiplap siding and tin.

Since the barn’s rebirth, Laurie Buyert has hosted numerous weddings and celebrations, including the couple’s 40th wedding anniversary, family reunions, and her mother’s 80th birthday. Just recently, Laurie — who gained her kitchen prowess from her mom — fed 50 people for an event; the Buyerts have a separate building for rent with a large kitchen, living area, and several bedrooms. The barn, however, is the place where large groups gather.

“Even if something is going on outside or in the other building, people always end up in the barn,” said Buyert. “It’s a warm gathering place.”

The Buyerts have 11 grandchildren, ages 3 to 17, and it's clear that “The North Place” is now a part of their formative years.

“I want kids to know what it’s like to play in a haymow. What it was like to build forts and toss hay,” Buyert said. “What we offer is what my parents shared with others — a servant heart, a place to be with others, and a good meal. It’s become our passion.”

-Farm News photos by Doug Clough LAURIE BUYERT stands in front of the family barn with her 4-year-old granddaughter Kycie Vanden Bosch. RIGHT: In the Buyert family, the section of land where the barn rests has always been known as “The North Place” because it lies just north of their farmstead.

Stately barn perseveres for 142 years

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

Driving past the Handsaker barn in Story County, some people mistake it for a big, square, impressively built home rather than the beautiful barn it’s become, thanks to the devotion of its owners.

Built in 1880 by J.W. Handsaker near Fernald, the working barn underwent restoration in 2003 with the help of the Iowa Barn Foundation.

Unfortunately, the derecho ripped the cupola off the top, but its current owners Gary Handsaker and his wife plan to redo that part.

Handsaker’s great-greatgrandfather was J.W. Handsaker, who also built the equally gorgeous home in 1875.

The wood-pegged barn has a unique look, Gary Handsaker said. It functioned as a working barn until the 1970s. When the family got out of the livestock business, it became a historical landmark instead.

“We keep it preserved mostly and open it up for the foundation's tours. There have been a few weddings here, but we keep it in the family as part of our history. The farm has been in the family since 1850,” Handsaker said. “The house my mom lives in was built in 1875 and the support beams are actual logs with real bark on them.”

The Handsakers have raised crops and livestock for years. Gary Handsaker has retired from farming and up until three years

ago, he raised breeding cattle, sold bulls and showed cattle. Now he serves as more of a groundskeeper.

“I've been mowing that yard since I was 10 years old, so 60 years now I guess,” Handsaker said.

When the Handsakers decided to restore the barn, they realized how impressive it was due to its unique features. They discovered that it's believed to be the second oldest barn in the state.

“We're so glad we preserved the barn for the fact alone that our grandchildren can see the way a barn really looks and not a metal building,” Handsaker said. “The guys who worked on the barn, which was my grandparents’ pride and joy, they made the comment that you didn't see many barns with wood trim.”

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-Submitted photos

BUILT IN 1880 by J.W. Handsaker near Fernald, the family's barn underwent restoration in 2003 with the help of the Iowa Barn Foundation.

LEFT: The Handsaker's barn in Story County functioned as a working barn until the 1970s. Today it has become a historical landmark.

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"We're so glad we preserved the barn for the fact alone that our grandchildren can see the way a barn really looks and not a metal building."

GARY HANDSAKER

Story County barn owner

By HANS MADSEN

If you’d been hanging around the area southeast of Evanston on the chilly morning of Dec. 19, 2019, you’d have seen a most interesting sight.

An old barn, in need of a little TLC, being driven across the frozen fields from the site where it was built to the site where it now resides, the Libby and Matt Mitchell farm along 255th Street.

The barn is barely recognizable as the same building today.

A labor of love and passion, the barn is now proudly restored and repaired, there to greet the morning sunshine each day.

The barn was built in approximately 1915.

“There’s a date that says 1915.” Libby Mitchell said.

“One board has all the names of the guys that built it.” Matt Mitchell added.

Those old signatures, in pencil and easy to miss, inspire reflection.

“I wonder what they were like.” Libby said. “They obviously had a passion for it too.”

That’s evident in the level of craftsmanship those long gone workers put into it.

Precision joints, everything square. Boards inlet into beams instead of just being hammered on. It was an era when quality work was a matter of pride and lumber was a bit cheaper.

“There’s more lumber in that than in a modern shed four times it’s size.” Matt Mitchell said.

The barn was moved by Vote House Moving, of Bradgate.

It was business owner Hubert

Vote’s last move. He died shortly afterward.

“He was saying ‘easy.’” Matt Mitchell said. “There’s nothing I can’t move.”

Libby Mitchell missed most of the actual move.

“I was cooking the whole time,” she said. “So I missed most of it.”

Matt Mitchell, however, was along the whole way.

“I was so happy,” he said. “I know what we could do. It was so cool. They just rolled it over and pushed it off. It was just perfect.”

Matt Mitchell had prepared footings before the move with his friend Donny Arends, who took some measurements and notes ... on the back of a Yahtzee score sheet.

They didn’t waste any time after the barn was set down to start work on it.

“Three days later we had the side sheathed,” he said. “We put the roof on in two days.”

The siding is concrete board; the roof is steel.

The most recently completed work is a poured concrete floor and the electrical wiring on the outside. They plan on the interior being just as it was before the move. That included stables and a raised lane. The couple believe the former equine residents were probably large draft horses.

“I want to get a half draft, half pony just so there’s a draft horse in the barn again,” Libby Mitchell

said.

A labor of love and passion weBster

The barn will be a big part of the couple’s children’s future. Everly, one and a half, and Eli, one month, will grow up with it.

“All this work so the kids can have a horse, cow, pig and maybe a few chickens,” Matt Mitchell joked.

“There’s no better childhood you can provide,” Libby Mitchell added. “I’m already looking forward to 4-H.”

The couple has zero regrets about the project.

“If I could do it, I’d do it all over again,” Matt Mitchell said. “I’ve actually got my eyes on another one. We look at it and say, ‘We did good.’ What are we going to do next?”

They’ve even had to do some minor repairs.

“We got a brand new zero turn mower,” Libby Mitchell said. “I thought, ‘This thing is a bus.’”

“She hits the side of the barn, busts the siding.” Matt Mitchell added. “She said, ‘I smoked the barn with the mower. I had two pieces of siding left over, you can’t even tell now. I told her, ‘Don’t mow around the barn.”

“My heart sunk,” she said.

The Mitchells stayed with the traditional red.

“It was originally red,” he said. “There was also some sort of tannish yellow at one time. We put it back to red.”

The Mitchell’s are grateful for all the help they’ve gotten from family and friends, particularly his grandfather, Joey Lennon, and the Vote family.

-Farm News photos by Hans Madsen LIBBY AND MATT MITCHELL, along with Everly, 1, and Eli, 1 month, pose with their restored barn southeast of Evanston. The barn was moved from a nearby site and dates from about 1915.

LEFT: The family's hand and footprints commemorate the newly poured concrete floor in the Libby and Matt Mitchell barn.

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to a young farmer who has 50 head of Charlois cattle,” said Carrie Jones. “At night they come into our yard and shelter in our shed.”

The cattle come as a reminder of the years gone by when the barn’s east side was a hub of activity.

“In the early 1900s, semen was hand-delivered from

Marshall

Sheldon to this farm,” said Carrie Jones, who has been a member of the Iowa Barn Federation for the past 18 years. “When we’ve been on the barn tour, many of the older farmers enjoy seeing the hand-written records, and they remember the days of working with a barn full of loose hay.”

Continued from Page 43

two years. The barn also has been featured on the Iowa Barn Foundation AllState Barn tour in the fall.

“We usually have between 100 to 200 people here for the tour. During the Christmas tree sales season, we have approximately 2,000 people visit the farmstead,” Pfantz said.

The family renovated the barn 20 years ago and replaced everything with the exact same materials used to construct the original barn, he said. The foundation was replaced with limestone, the siding with wood cedar clapboards and the roof with wood cedar shingles.

“The barn is very unique in its structure. There are only two posts in the haymow that hold

Lyon

Continued from Page 42

They also stored hay and straw in the haymow but were inspired to breathe new life into the structure after an anniversary party was held there.

“We started cleaning up the haymow in 2010 as we were planning to have our 30th anniversary party/ dance in the barn. We swept out all the hay and straw chaff out of the haymow, then had the whole inside of the barn power washed. We built a deck on the south side of the barn and put a patio door into the haymow. Then we built a bar for the haymow, and our family did all the work together. We had our party and dance in May of 2010 and it was a blast,” said Ruth Ackerman.

Every year, the family worked together on the barn, sprucing it up. The end result has become quite impressive.

“As each year passed, we would do a little more stuff to the barn. We added a picture window in the haymow, a patio door downstairs, made the milk house into a restroom and took out all the stanchions that they milked the cows in. But we did keep two sets in as they were the old wood stanchions and made a storage room,” Ackerman said. “Four years ago, James and our youngest son Dustin built a horseshoe bar in the bottom of the barn and we built a deck on the east side of the barn to watch the cattle and the river.”

THIS STAIRCASE leads up to the haymow. The Lyon County barn has become a favorite gathering spot for family and friends.

we wanted a place where people could come and relax, enjoy the scenery and visit with their neighbors and friends. And that is what has happened. We are open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m.,” Ackerman said.

“We do host weddings, anniversary parties, graduation parties, family reunions, class reunions, birthday parties, retirement parties, family pictures, bean bag tournaments, sideby-side poker runs, etc.

party, or an event, you are more than welcome to use our facilities.”

People from miles away come to book their event at RiverView Barn. Ackerman said they fill up fast during graduation open house season and wedding reservations are starting to dot the calendar there, too.

“This year we had a couple from Texas that got married here. They grew up in this area and decided to come back here to get married,” she said. “Otherwise, the rest of the clients come from the local area from Sioux Falls to the lakes area.”

Upstairs in the haymow area, upwards of 70 people can be seated at tables. Downstairs, an estimated 40 people can sit at tables and the bar.

While there isn't a designated dance floor, when there's a wedding reception held there, tables and chairs can be removed from the bottom level to create a dance floor area.

The Ackermans' youngest son Dustin farms with them while their oldest son Bill helps out when he isn't working. Bill and his wife Abbie have three boys; son Jared and his wife Jenny have three boys; daughter Jayna and her husband Joe have two boys and a daughter; then Dustin and his wife Rachel have one son.

up the entire four-gabled roof and large 10-by-10foot cupola. There is an elaborate bracing system that runs along the entire perimeter inside the haymow, near the roofline. This allows the walls to counteract the weight of the roof. Having only two poles in the haymow allowed easier movement of hay and could have been one of the very first attempts at having a clear span space inside of a building,” Pfantz said.

Although the property was sold outside of the family in 1972, Pfantz and his wife, Mary, bought it back in 1994.

“It means a lot to own a property that has been in my family,” he said.

With the barn full of new amenities and looking picture perfect, the couple decided to offer it as a fun place for family and friends to gather. Eventually, it became a wonderful spot for special events, too.

“When we started with the bar part,

SacContinued from Page 56

there was wall renovation in the 1960s as well as Ceco-rolled white tin to replace the original cedar shingles. AJ’s initials were painted on the corn crib during his years of ownership.

In 1970, Gene and Sandy were married, earning ownership of the farm in 1977 after being partners with his father. Gene Weitzel remembers his father saying to Sandy, “Our barn is so big that it clouds up and rains in there!” Climbing on the ladder into the hayloft, the barn does seem to have its own atmospheric condition.

“We also host a Halloween party every year as the final event for the season as we are open from May to October. We are a working farm where people can come and enjoy a couple beverages and company. But if you would like to have a wedding,

“We've had three events here that have been the most memorable,” said Ruth Ackerman. “First, our 30th anniversary, which was the first event we held here and a very memorable day. Then when our daughter was married here and our youngest son, too. Those two weddings made for some great memories on the farm,”

“Five years ago, we decided to get out of livestock altogether; the hay is used for the church manger at Christmas time now.”

The Weitzels, along with their son Ryan, 47, exclusively farm 272 acres in Clinton Township. Daughters Kristen, 50, and Sara, 42, both live in Minneapolis.

Those that built this barn — hewing mammoth beams and securing them with wooden pegs — would be pleased to see it still structurally sound with little help over the years. However, Weitzel's

farm has been blessed with other changes throughout the years. “I enjoy operating the machinery and seeing the technology change,” said Weitzel. “The modernization of the machinery makes the job of harvesting easier. Years ago, we changed from ear corn to shelling and that was impressive. Just the sheer amount of information we can glean today from harvest to harvest is amazing.”

Also, in a fitting tribute to the farm’s legacy, Gene’s initials were added to the corncrib this past July.

-Submitted photo

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough THIS AREA OF THE BARN was once used for milking cows.

Crawford

barn quilt.

Continued from Page 20

The Finerans added a wide stairway inside to provide easy access to the hayloft from the main floor. When they were ready to refinish the hayloft floor, Kevin and Diane had no idea what shape the original wood might be in. Once the dirt was cleaned off and the grain of the wood was exposed, they were amazed to discover the floor was made of Douglas fir. Now restored, the wide planks reflect a warm glow, especially when the strings of lights across the ceiling twinkle overhead.

A bar in the corner of the hayloft creates an inviting space to relax. The walls here showcase neon signs and rustic decor, along with a portrait of Kevin’s great-grandparents, Patrick and Bridget Fineran, Irish immigrants who were among the pioneers of Crawford County.

Pieces of the barn’s history, including large hay forks suspended with the original rope from the barn door, have been repurposed into an impressive light fixture that helps illuminate the west end of the hayloft.

The barn provides a popular gathering place for the Fineran family and their friends throughout the year. On Oct. 8, 2022, the couple’s daughter Kate

KEVIN AND DIANE FINERAN say they are glad they preserved their barn and enjoy sharing it with others.

held her wedding at the Fineran farm, followed by a reception in the barn.

“We’re glad we’ve preserved this barn, and we enjoy sharing it with visitors,” Diane Fineran said.

THE

O’Brien

Continued from Page 44

center beams and old pesticide pump cans of yesteryear set on a rail.

A good portion of the lower barn is used to store wood for a burner. Battaglioli is a hunter, and two labs use the old horse stalls for shelter.

Up in the hayloft, the history lesson continues. A set of stairs replaced the ladder to the hayloft.

Looking up the stairs, Battaglioli said, “This is what inspired me to save this barn; this is really a massive upside-down arc. To me, it's breathtaking.”

The original rope and pulley system for carrying hay is still present. There are collections of horse bits and netting that covered a horse to help shoo the flies away. Reminiscent of the days when corn was picked by hand, leather wrist pickers line up on a wall.

On another wall is her greatgrandfather’s World War I uniform, designed for a soldier who rode horseback.

“My dad read an article about the Iowa Barn Federation’s efforts to help save barns,” said Battaglioli. “I was hooked on this barn, so we applied and were accepted. The straightening of the barn started in February of 2002, the roof was replaced with tin, and the barn painted.”

anywhere — it even survived a derecho this past summer. The barn is sturdy after almost 90 years in existence.

THE HAYLOFT GLOWS under the lights strung in its rafters. Pieces of the barn’s history, including large hay forks suspended with the original rope from the barn door, have been repurposed into an impressive light fixture that helps illuminate the west end of the hayloft.

On the day we interviewed Battaglioli, with winds exceeding 40 miles per hour, the barn creaked and swayed a bit at the hayloft, but it gave no sign of going

“Part of saving the barn was being able to share it with others,” said Battaglioli. “My dad and I would pheasant-hunt together, and we’d always have more birds than we could eat by ourselves. We decided to have our neighbors and church friends over to the hayloft for creamed pheasant, salads, coffee, and dessert. We’ve had more than 60 people up here enjoying conversation and the conversation pieces. We’ve even had a hymn sing or two.”

-Farm News photos by Doug Clough

HAYLOFT is now a place where family and friends can gather. BELOW: Pam Battaglioli’s great-grandfather’s World War I uniform, designed for a soldier who rode horseback, adorns one wall inside the barn.

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Townley recalls picking corn by hand woodBury

By DOUG CLOUGH

SIOUX CITY — “The barn is well over 100 years old,” said Lynn Townley, 97, third-generation owner of this Woodbury Century Farm. The 36-foot-wide by 40-foot-long by 30-foot-tall structure was designed to be a multi-purpose barn.

When his wife Delores, 92, and he actively farmed, the white building was active with cattle and hogs. Lynn Townley also farmed 200 acres of land with corn and soybean rotation. The couple lived on the farm from 1964 to 2004.

Townley’s daughter Deb Main, with her husband Mike, now reside on the farm.

For these fourth-generation owners, the cattle and hogs are gone, replaced with a goose named Laser Beam and 80 or so layers.

“Ever since I’ve been back on the farm,” said Deb Main, “people figure I have room for animals, I guess. I would have never named my own goose ‘Laser Beam,’ but I didn’t have the heart to change it.”

Deb and Mike Main rent out their pasture to a neighbor who has cattle.

“I can remember picking corn by hand,” said Lynn Townley, who was born in the house where his daughter now resides. “Seems like I could only pick an acre a day, so most often the harvest wouldn’t be finished until January. It was hot, nasty work, and I enjoyed picking

more in the winter since I could move to stay warm instead of stopping to cool down.”

Townley said that developments in fertilizer were the best improvement on the farm: “It noticeably improved yields.”

The Townleys had five children in all, Deb the oldest. “We all walked beans and did other chores,” Deb Main said. “For some reason, dusting the house seemed to be the worst chore — and it only took one hour!”

Main recalls visiting her parents farm in 2002 on a particularly hot day, finding her dad in the field attacking weeds with a corn knife.

“He said, ‘I’d like to sell this farm, but for the life of me, I don’t know anyone who’d want it,’” said Main. “I told him that I did!”

Just two years later, Mike and Deb Main were sheltering a goose, raising chickens, and holding family get-togethers on the farm.

“We enjoy hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter dinners here,” said Main. “It’s home for all of us. We’ve had two weddings here.”

Just this past summer, the Townley lineage was recognized at the Iowa State Fair for their Century Farm status.

First-generation owners were

Joseph and Lillian Townley. The second generation was Lynn’s parents, Howard and Sis Townley.

“Growing up, we had four Belgian horses and a two-row cultivator. There was Prince, Babe, and others,” stated Lynn Townley, who also remembers their 1949 Ford Ferguson tractor. “That rear transmission howled! It was enough to drive you crazy.”

Delores Townley fondly remembers taking milk and eggs to town on Saturday to sell them.

“We always looked forward to Saturday,” she said. “It was a nice break from the week, especially when we were threshing oats and stacking the shocks.”

She also remembers their first gas-powered laundry machine: “You had to get the oil mix just right, and we had to boil the water separately.”

It wasn’t all work, however; the Townleys were also square dancers. Their grandkids recall pulling their petticoats out of the closet for dress-up and watching their grandparents dance in the house.

Lynn Townley also added a basketball hoop up in the hayloft. He recalls helping his dad paint the barn when he was no more than 5 years old.

“It used to be red,” said Townley, “and he decided he wanted it to be white. Of course, I was so small that I could only paint up a few boards high!”

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-Farm News photos by Doug Clough

DEB AND MIKE MAIN are the fourth generation to own the family farm where this multi-purpose barn rests. It is more than 100 years old.

LEFT: Lynn and Delores Townley, along with their daughter Deb Main, stand near the Century Farm sign on their Woodbury County barn.

Growing up as a right-hand man

By CLAYTON RYE

CLARION — The barn on the Dale and Kim Deimerly farm was there when Dale’s grandfather, Sebastian Deimerly, moved on to the farm in 1913, purchasing it in 1918.

Deimerly estimates the barn was built in the late 1800s, as the house was built in 1895.

After Sebastian Deimerly’s death in 1940, his son John and wife Mary, Dale’s parents, became the next generation to farm the Century Farm. John Deimerly was one of five children and born on the farm.

John and Mary Deimerly had seven children with an age spread of 18 years, with son Dale being number seven.

Dale Deimerly tells of a farm accident when his father lost the fingers of his right hand, when his hand was caught in a feed grinder in front of the barn on New Year’s Day, leaving only his thumb.

With only the use of one hand, young Dale worked alongside his father, helping when tasks required more than one hand.

“I was actually his right-hand man,” said Dale Deimerly. “I climbed bins.”

The barn became a dairy barn under John Deimerly. His wife Mary kept chickens in the

haymow.

“Lots of chickens,” said Dale Deimerly.

The chickens laid 10 cases of eggs a week. Deimerly remembers getting up early before school to gather the eggs

before they froze in the unheated barn.

Once the chickens were gone, the opening at the east end of the barn was enlarged to accommodate beef cattle. They fed 100 head of cattle at a time.

John Deimerly had the barn tinned to keep it in good shape.

Dale Deimerly started farming in 1985.

“Dad was done with livestock,” he said.

Deimerly bought feeder pigs,

feeding three bunches a year until he quit in 1994. The cattle operation ended in 2015. Looking back at the livestock that were housed in the barn, Kim Deimerly said, “They had everything.”

Today, the barn is home to five or six feral cats, down from 20 cats at one time.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

THE DEIMERLY FARM had its origin when the farm was purchased in 1918. The barn is believed to have been built in the late 1800s. RIGHT: John Deimerly, Dale Deimerly’s father, is pictured here. After his father lost his fingers in a feed grinder accident, Dale Deimerly literally became his father’s “right-hand man.”

"I was actually his right-hand man. I climbed bins."

DALE DEIMERLY Wright County barn owner

-Submitted photo

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- photo by Les Houser, Wright County Monitor

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Marv Mortensen: 515-370-3381 • marv@highyieldbeans.com

Bob Streit: 515-709-0143 • bastreit@gmail.com 515-379-1050 jmconstructionbode.com

Pat Groth, DSM, Harlan, IA 712-830-0258

Mike Terpstra, DSM, Sioux Falls, SD 319-481-8514

Trevor Gress, Denison, IA 712-269-0705

Austin Tiefenthaler Breda, IA 712-830-3571

Joel Davidson Internet sales 319-461-8419

Miller Hybrids office 319-325-6158